Strategic perspectives on \u201cMade in Italy\u201d: an exploratory market analysis of professional espresso coffee machines according to Porter's five competitive forces

It is well known that the agri-food industry represents an important leverage for Italian export. Espresso coffee is one of the driver of this industry and it represents one of the Made in Italy assets. Exporting espresso means spreading the Italian culture. In fact Espresso is widely associated with the Italian way of life, even though the agricultural coffee productions are placed very far from Italy. The connection between espresso and Italy is not only given by the consumption culture, but also by the machinery production for the espresso preparation. Italian firms are an excellence for the production of traditional espresso machines. The development of the international horeca (hotel-restaurant-caf\ue9) sector represents an opportunity for both the espresso services and the connected industrial sectors, to improve their role in the international markets. This article presents an analysis of the coffee machine sector, with particular regard to connections with the horeca sector. Porter's framework of five forces is used to show the competitive environment in which the sectors of interest are settled. A picture of the relations in espresso coffee sector is taken from the analysis of sources of different kind. The focus is on professional coffee machines and the possible development of this industry. Through a collection of secondary data, this article underlines challenges of the espresso coffee machines productions. On one side it shows the possibility to spread Italian culture through coffee consumption. On the other side new global challenges emerges, such as the growing coffee pods market