Schaerer partners in Sweden, Norway, Finland and Denmark form the Nordic Coffee Alliance
Shared coffee expertise for Northern Europe
Uniform service of the highest quality for all Schaerer customers in the Nordic countries – this is what the Nordic Coffee Alliance has been offering since April 2022. Schaerer trade and service partners Café Bar (Sweden and Finland), Stellini Kaffe (Denmark) and Kaffeknappen (Norway) are coming together to offer a single point of contact. This close collaboration now makes it possible to take advantage of cross-border synergies. Customers operating throughout Scandinavia will also receive the same top level of premium coffee solutions and service, no matter where they are.
“We had already been in Sweden and Denmark for some time through our partners Café Bar and Stellini Kaffe. After gaining a Norwegian partner with Kaffeknappen, and after Café Bar also took responsibility for Finland, cross-border collaboration was the next logical step”, says Alexander Prel, EMEA Sales Manager at Schaerer AG. Thomas Doyon, CEO of Café Bar Sverige AB, elaborates on the core idea behind the Nordic Coffee Alliance: “We have already been working successfully with Schaerer in Sweden for 19 years. But we were not able to fully support large companies operating across national borders with machine technology and services. This is now possible thanks to the support of Kaffeknappen and Stellini Kaffe”. The group of companies, with its more than 260 employees, now supports a total of more than 16,000 machines.
Leveraging strengths across borders
Since the Nordic countries have close economic ties and many companies are active in several of them, this step was an obvious one. The first customers are already benefiting from the new alliance. “For example, after positive experiences with our machines in Denmark, which were purchased via Stellini Kaffe, one company bought Schaerer machines for its Norwegian office, which Kaffeknappen then installed”, explains Prel. Karl Haukelidsæter, CCO (Chief Commercial Officer) and owner of the Norwegian Schaerer partner, had this to add: “Kaffeknappen has only been part of Schaerer's partner network since 2020. From the very beginning, we have relied on their machine technology and coffee expertise. The Nordic Coffee Alliance is now giving us the chance to contribute our strengths across borders. This saves us time and resources and, together with our partners, makes us even more competitive”.
Central coordination
The decisive factor for the success of the collaboration, which links multiple markets, is the pooling of the entire customer contact into a single point of contact. Requests from all four countries can be clearly coordinated and optimally allocated through this single point. “In our more than 20 years of collaborating with Schaerer, it has always been about providing our customers with innovative and efficient machines that guarantee them the best cup of coffee. Thanks to the unified approach of the Nordic Coffee Alliance, this can be done more efficiently than ever before – even if the customer is not from Denmark”, says Thomas Polano, CEO of Stellini Kaffe. The central point of contact not only enables standardisation of service and account management: Synergies in purchasing and sales can also be better identified and utilised.
Innovative technology for the future
Pooled coordination is also the key factor in fleet management. The “Smart Portal” joint telemetry platform enables detailed data analysis, which, among other things, significantly reduces operating costs and downtime for the respective customer. This helps optimise processes on the basis of certain key figures, which increase the service life of the individual machines and, in turn, reduce the total cost of ownership.
This all means that the partners of the Nordic Coffee Alliance see themselves in an excellent position for the future. “It is becoming more and more important to combine outstanding coffee quality with simple, convenient processes. The innovative Schaerer technologies do exactly that, especially when it comes to current trends such as plant-based milk alternatives or machine networking. We in turn ensure the smoothest possible processes when ordering and installing the machines, as well as when servicing them. And we do this in all Nordic countries”, says Thomas Doyon.
More about the "Nordic Coffee Alliance":