This is bad news for Nespresso could lead to more bad news...

by chee Leng (on coffee makers)
(Singapore)

Folks that have been following my articles know that there are some OEM capsules that are compatible with Nespresso machine out in the market.

In January, Nespresso successfully blocked the sales of Swiss Retailer Denner for capsules that are make by Alice Allison SA.

But, today the commercial court of St. Gall Switzerland lifted that ban, that means Denner can continue selling the OEM compatible capsules!

This is bad news for Nespresso, and one that would lead to more bad news.

Nespresso is also fighting 2 other major cases to ban the sales of compatible capsules in France from Sara Lee and ECC.

But, if this case set the precedent, it looks like they would likely lose the case in France too.

This could effectively open the floodgate and allowed any companies to produce Nespresso compatible capsules.

Nespresso has millions of machines worldwide and producing compatible capsules for these machines is definitely a lucrative business.

Just last year, the Nespresso compatible capsules was a star performer in Sara Lee stable of products.

I believe if by middle of this year, we could probably see compatible Nespresso capsules in Asia or at least in Japan, where it has a huge presence.

My $0.02.