Ana Maria Doxan started her professional career at Nestlé as a student, 18 years ago, with an internship in the Corporate Communications department at the Swiss offices. In 2005, she joined the Nestlé Romania team, in the Beverages Division, and over the years has led large-scale projects such as the launch of the Nescafé Dolce Gusto brand and the development of the Nescafé 3în1 brand. Last May, Ana Maria Doxan became Business Executive Officer for the Nespresso Division in Romania, a position from which she oversees all of the division’s operations and ensures local strategic development as well as sustainability commitments.

How has Nespresso business in Romania evolved in the first half-year, compared to the similar period of 2021? What are the main support elements for sales?

For us, the year 2022 had a strong beginning, with the launch of Vertuo System, which was a very important moment for our team and for the coffee lovers because the new system successfully extracts a very wide variety of coffees – from espresso (40 ml) to double espresso (80 ml), gran lungo (150 ml), cup (230 ml) and even carafe (535 ml – a coffee recommended for 2-3 servings) – crowning them with a dense, rich, Nespresso-specific cream. Of course, the new system is an absolute novelty in coffee making, as it no longer uses high pressure for coffee extraction, but a new technology – CentrifusionTM – patented by Nespresso, which allows coffee infusion by centrifugation. Nespresso Vertuo System was originally launched in America and Canada in 2014, as coffee lovers’ profile on the American continent showed a tendency towards long cups, and the ristretto (25ml) and espresso (40ml) coffees were not as popular as in Europe. The trend has expanded, and the launch of Vertuo System in Europe was a natural and necessary step.

Another important moment for us was the opening of a new outlet – this time going closer to the coffee lovers in Brașov. In the new location, our customers find a carefully curated selection of espresso machines, accessories and coffee types, both from the Original range and from the Vertuo range.

Last but not least, an important reason for our enthusiasm was the awarding of B Corp certificate in April this year, a certification that confirms the positive impact that Nespresso has had in the coffee industry and beyond. With this certification we proudly join an international social movement that includes companies that meet the most rigorous standards of social responsibility, environmental responsibility and transparency.

How is the distribution structured at local level and how many own stores do you operate now?

Currently in Romania we have eight stores in four cities – five stores in Bucharest, one in Cluj, one in Timișoara and one in Brașov – and we distribute coffee only through our own channels: both in the stores listed above and in our online store www.nespresso.com and through our Customer Service Center. In this way, the Nespresso coffee lovers enjoy not only an extremely varied assortment, but also a shopping experience at the standards of luxury retail, advice and tailor-made offers.

As concerns the distribution of Nespresso espresso machines, we have implemented, starting last year, a new strategy in Romania, aligned with the company’s global strategy, which involves collaboration with Groupe SEB and De’Longhi for production, distribution and delivery of Nespresso espresso machines to all partners from the electro-retail segment in Romania.

What is the profile of the Romanian coffee consumer and what trends do we currently find on the specific market?

I would say that some things have remained unchanged, while others have changed. In Romania, the consumption of roasted and ground coffee prepared in kettles is still predominant, with about a third of the coffees consumed without milk being prepared in this way. Also, the filter coffee has an important place among consumer preferences, with almost a quarter of black coffee lovers opting for the filter. But the use of coffee beans and capsule coffee has increased exponentially in the past 8 years, the advantage of the capsule coffee being the ease and speed of preparation, as well as the wide variety of assortments.

We also notice that almost three quarters of the coffees drunk by Romanians are „large”, over 80ml, namely from double-espresso upwards, and about two thirds of the coffees drunk by Romanians are without milk. A peculiarity is that those who add milk to coffee, add a fairly large amount, even more than a quarter of cup.

In 2018, you launched for the first time in Romania your own infrastructure for collecting and recycling used coffee capsules. What results has this project so far?

That’s right, in 2018 we introduced our own infrastructure for collecting and recycling used coffee capsules – this way we have the opportunity to recycle all the coffee capsules we sell. The infrastructure is accessible free of charge to all our customers – they can either send us the used capsules by courier when they place a new order online or by phone, or bring them during their next visit to the store. It gives us immense joy to see an increasing rate for collection and recycling in Romania year by year, this is a proof that our actions reach the consumers and urge responsible behavior. Since the launch of the recycling program, we have managed to collect over 28,000 kg of aluminum and over 112,000 kg of coffee grounds. Every year we collect more, compared to the previous year, and for this year we estimate a growth of 33%. The recycling of used capsules is very important to us and we try through all our communication actions, campaigns or strategic partnerships to encourage as many Nespresso coffee lovers as possible to recycle.

What are the development plans for Nespresso business on the Romanian market in the next period?

This year we will keep coming up with news as concerns the coffee types, espresso machines and accessories for Nespresso coffee lovers. The most recent partnership is the one with Alessandra Ambrosio, this summer being under the sign of the vibrant spirit of Brazil, by launching coffee types especially created for the ice coffee recipes.

We aim to continue to strengthen our footprint in the cities where we already have outlets, so as to offer the coffee lovers shopping experiences at the highest level, and at the same time we work and invest continuously to implement new e-commerce and delivery services.

Last but not least, we will expand the range of coffee subscriptions – they prove to be particularly popular, both for consumers and for companies. In fact, Nespresso welcomes the office-based companies with a wide range of professional solutions, the coffee subscriptions for companies being flexible, customizable and efficient solutions, by which the employees are offered very simply and intuitively the highest quality coffees, in an amazing variety of types – from ristretto (25ml) to espresso (40ml), lungo (120ml), coffee with flavors and decaffeinated coffee, single origin coffee, organic coffee and options for fresh milk coffee recipes – cappuccino, latte macchiato, etc.

Interview by Ioan Dornescu

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