Coffee specialities with plant-based alternatives to milk have become an important sales driver in the coffee industry. The new cooperation between WMF Professional Coffee Machines and vly underscores this sustainable development. With their combined expertise in the areas of machine technology, coffee excellence, plant-based beverage trends and forward-thinking food development, the two partners aim to actively promote a vegan/vegetarian future in the German coffee industry.
“As a provider of comprehensive solutions, we are committed to equipping customers of WMF Professional Coffee Machines with the necessary machine features. Just as importantly, we hope to share our knowledge and expertise relating to important beverage trends and their high-quality, profit-enhancing implementation by caterers and restaurant proprietors.
“A partnership with vly, a Berlin-based food start-up in the field of plant-based alternatives, allows us to advise and support customers even more comprehensively than before,” said Axel Fähnle, Head of Global Brand Marketing, Content and Market Activation, GBU Professional Coffee Machines at WMF GmbH.
The Geislingen-based premium manufacturer offers the entire range of plant-based milk alternatives. WMF works together with well-known suppliers such as Alpro, the market leader for plant-based alternative products.
“Milk alternatives are much more than just substitute products. Many guests simply find their favourite beverage tastes better when it is prepared with plant-based drinks. When it comes to variety, creativity and quality assurance, we support this new trend proactively and with sustainable solutions,” said Mr Fähnle.
The initial contact between the two partners came about recently, when the two companies were working on the same customer project. During this project, the Walldorfer SAP Group equipped the WMF fully automatic coffee machines in its offices with 4-litre bags-in-boxes from ‘vly Barista’.
Extensive beverage testing in the development laboratories in Geislingen also revealed its great potential for new coffee specialities of consistently premium quality and laid the foundation for a long-term partnership.
“As one of the world’s leading coffee machine manufacturers,” Mr Fähnle said, “we aim to actively shape markets and trends. With its fantastic product and its ‘never stop learning’ approach, vly is an important trendsetter. So, it was only natural for us to continue this journey into the field of vegan speciality culture together. We are delighted to support an agile food start-up and look forward to providing comprehensive, revenue-boosting solutions together for new generations of connoisseurs.”
This partnership with WMF Professional Coffee Machines is an important motor for the internationalisation strategy of vly (VF Nutrition GmbH) in the out-of-home sector. “We believe that we can bring about change with our products.” said co-founder of vly Nicolas Hartmann. “In recent years, many people have become more aware of nutritional issues. This has led to increasing interest in plant products, which we are seeing in the form of continually rising demand from end consumers.
“It also goes without saying that we aim to position ourselves as leading suppliers of milk alternatives for cafés and large companies – nationally and internationally. We see many points of contact through this new partnership with WMF, which has built up an excellent network in the industry, and we believe that the two companies can benefit from each other.”
