ZURICH, SWITZERLAND – Nespresso machines are losing their battle to take Nestlé-only coffee pods, reports industry newspaper Food Business News, with yet another entry into the market later this year.
“Mondelēz International is broadening its presence in the single-serve coffee market with the launch of coffee pods under its Jacobs and Carte Noire brands that are compatible with the single-serving Nespresso machines sold by rival Nestle SA. The new coffee pods will launch with the Jacobs and Carte Noire brands in Austria, France, Germany and Switzerland in the second half of 2013. Mondelēz already has its own single-serve beverage machine, Tassimo, which was launched in 2004 and now is one of the fastest growing single-serve systems in Europe.”
The European market for capsules coffee is a $2.8 billion business, according to the newspaper, which notes that three other companies make Nespresso machine-compatible capsules: Dutch company Douwe Egberts, Swiss company Ethical Coffee Co. and Dualit Ltd in the UK.
The Ethical Coffee Company, which boasts capsules that are entirely biodegradable and 30 percent less than the Nespresso brand’s, won a court case against the Vevey-based food giant in February, when a Dusseldorf court said it could continue selling its products to German consumers. But its capsules, distributed for use in the machines in a dozen other European countries, are still commercially banned in Switzerland under temporary protective measures demanded by Nestlé in 2011. Denners, Coop and Migros all now have their own coffee capsules, although these, too, were initially banned by various Swiss cantonal courts.