Olympia Express is moving... and changing ownership

by HB on Tue Jan 25, 2011 10:11 pm

The people at Olympia Express are fans of this site and more recently the company joined the roster of site sponsors. Knowing that the HB community includes a good number of Olympia equipment owners, Christian Sagehorn asked me to post this press release related to recent good news for the future of Olympia Express:

Olympia Express wrote:Olympia Express SA Mendrisio, the coffee machine manufacturer with the products Cremina, Maximatic and Moca has been taken over by Schätti Metallwarenfabrik AG as of 1st January 2011.

Outgoing Chairman Heinrich Linz: "We were in love with these wonderful machines and still are but had to realize that our manufacturing approach in Ticino was not economically viable. So we are pleased that we have found a buyer in Schätti Metallwarenfabrik AG who as we believe has the power to shoulder the Olympic heritage and to manufacture these machines more efficiently."

Thomas Schätti praises the work done by the outgoing board and the whole Olympia Express team: "It took a lot of enthusiasm to bring these classic machines back to life." Thomas Schätti plans to move production as well as sales and distribution from Ticino to the Glarnerland. "Thus Heidi and Peter will finally start drinking espresso" quips Thomas Schätti.

Christian Sagehorn, who for the past three years has been managing Olympia Express SA, will remain at the helm and continues to be the first contact for retailers and customers. He is convinced that the new level of production depth, quality management and engineering know-how will secure the basis for further expansion. "Merging 80 years of coffee experience and over 75 years of family tradition in metalwork promises that the quality of the Olympia product will stay uncompromised."

Our new address:
Olympia Express SA
Burgstrasse 26
8750 Glarus
SWITZERLAND

by **another_jim** on Wed Jan 26, 2011 9:01 am

It's great they are going to continue manufacturing

In case the Heidi reference is obscure: Ticino is in Italian Switzerland, close to the border with Italy, and actually rather good for manufacturing since you can get lower wage Italian guest workers. Glarus is primal Swiss, featuring an incomprehensible German dialect, cows, drying shacks, and (as of 15 years ago) spotty plumbing. The local obstler (moonshine) is probably consumed more than coffee-- think what West Virginia would be like without coal. I have a hard time seeing how manufacturing in Glarus can be more efficient; but the Wikipedia article says the main town now has about 25% Italian and Albanian residents, presumably working in manufacturing plants.

I'm not expecting price drops

by **michaelbenis** on Wed Jan 26, 2011 9:05 am

It's worth noting that Schätti are the comparatively large specialist company that Olympia chose to entrust with making the stainless steel boilers used in their machines.

by **dialydose** on Wed Jan 26, 2011 11:54 am

another_jim wrote: think what West Virginia would be like without coal.

It would be beautiful!!

Although I agree not ideal for manufacturing espresso equipment (or any other equipment).

by **cannonfodder** on Wed Jan 26, 2011 12:50 pm

Not really. It would be falling apart since most of the state would be unemployed.

At any rate, good to see Oly is still alive. It will be interesting to see how the machines are reengineered for production. Build quality is their stand out point. You can park a car on one of their machines, they really are built like a tank.

by **dialydose** on Wed Jan 26, 2011 1:45 pm

cannonfodder wrote:Not really. It would be falling apart since most of the state would be unemployed.

I didn't mean economically, I meant aesthetically, naturally, geographically, etc. Perhaps our definitions of "falling apart" depend on different factors.

The coal industry has destroyed the beauty of the mountain areas with mountain "toppping" and deforestation. Take a look at the link and ask if yourself if you would want to go camping, hunting, fishing, or hiking in these areas (which were pristine forest before). Never mind if you would want to live there.

http://www.ohvec.org/galleries/mountaintop_removal/007/

by **rawman** on Wed Jan 26, 2011 3:13 pm

I am glad to see that they are not going out of business as well.

The following quote:

Outgoing Chairman Heinrich Linz: "We were in love with these wonderful machines and still are but had to realize that our manufacturing approach in Ticino was not economically viable. So we are pleased that we have found a buyer in Schätti Metallwarenfabrik AG who as we believe has the power to shoulder the Olympic heritage and to manufacture these machines more efficiently."

makes sense, I think that is pretty obvious to everyone. I just can't imagine they are selling too many of these. However it has to mean the quality will go down at least somewhat. Hey could be worse though. At least they are not outsourcing production to China..

by **orphanespresso** on Wed Jan 26, 2011 7:47 pm

Schätti has pretty good CNC manufacturing in Bulgaria, I believe, and that keeps costs down. We've been in contact with Christian, and I think he's right - it's going to be a good move for Olympia-Express.

by **farmroast** on Thu Jan 27, 2011 12:13 pm

I like this. Glad to here Olympia-Express will continue on.

by **drgary** on Thu Jan 27, 2011 12:15 pm

FWIW, here's a link to the site of the new owner.

http://www.schaetti-ag.ch/cms/Default.a...g.ch/cms/e


Contact Us	Legal disclaimer and copyright: This content and all its parts are copyrighted, all rights reserved. Content including all text and images in part or in whole may not be reproduced in any electronic or printed medium without prior permission. Home-Barista, Home-Barista.com and related logos are trademarks of Home-Barista.com, LLC. Other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. By accessing this site, you agree to the terms of service. Overall speed: , current page: s, avg: s, max: s