Success of Sara Lee comes at the expense of Nespresso?

by Chee Leng
(Singapore)

Sara Lee or Douwe Egberts launched the L'OR Espresso capsules in Netherlands yesterday 8th December 2010.

These capsules would be sold exclusively in a network of premium outlets that focus on selling Douwe Egberts' coffee and tea.

The L'OR espresso capsules is one of Sara Lee most innovative and successful products in recent years.

It was launched in France earlier this year and to date it has sold more than 90 million capsules and it represents 3% of the entire roast and ground coffee market share there.

Of course, there is no doubt that the products is enjoying good sales because of Douwe Egberts quality coffee.

The coffee has to be good, no matter what Douwe Egberts is the olderst coffee roaster around, so it must know something about coffee to be around this long right?

Another element that contributes to the success of this product is of course the popularity of Nespresso single serve coffee maker.

There are millions of the Nespresso coffee machines in the market and by opening out the possibility of using a premium coffee, Nespresso users would jump at it.

In the past, they can only choose from what Nespresso is offering.

There is some tussle over the legality on Sara Lee doing this, but in the mean time, this is beneficial to the consumers.

Another company that is enjoying tremendous success is ECC (Ethical Coffee Company) that also produces coffee capsules that can be used on Nespresso machines.

It is right to do that?

Lets take a look at any other coffee machine say Bunn or Mr Coffee, are you able to use any coffee you like?

My thought is, if I have paid for a particular coffee machine, why am I not able to choose the coffee that I want to drink.

If Nespresso is good, after I tried the rest of the coffee, I would still stick to Nespresso right?

So, I do not think Sara Lee Success came about entirely by riding on Nespresso. The coffee must be good in the first place, for so many people to be buying it...