Single Serve Coffee Forums

Would be nice though if the signature image was about a quarter of it's current size.

jar wrote:Would be nice though if the signature image was about a quarter of it's current size.

It is just a little large, but no problems, I was thinking about changing it

anyway. This week I think I'll go with Jay and silent Bob.

This subject got more press in Friday's NYT:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/21/busin ... =cse&scp=2

Not much new ground is covered, but it's a decent overview.

Sounds like these aftermarket espresso capsules may start showing up in the U.S. before too long:

http://www.singleserveespresso.com/arch ... sso_co.php
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-12-1 ... rland.html

Maybe they're selling well despite the bad first impressions I read about (posted earlier)?

jbviau wrote:Maybe they're selling well despite the bad first impressions I read about (posted earlier)?

Or not selling at all but they know Americans will even drink lite beer and so dump them here.

From the article:

"... Sara Lee... offering their L'Or capsules in France online and at retailers since April, and in the Netherlands just this month. They have reportedly sold 90 million capsules to date.

While I have not had these varieties, I have over the years had a fair amount of Douwe Egberts, and they are a serious coffee brand with quality that would come in at the high end of mass market roasted coffee here in the US."

I'd like to know what percentage of those sales is for *repeat* orders!

""90 million capsules to date"" Someone must like them. I've been keeping an eye out when I go to the Sara Lee outlet store in Grove city, PA . Nothing yet but I'll at least give them a try!

Cheers,
vespacar

Since there are 10 capsules per package, that's 9 million discrete purchases at most (and probably fewer if people bought more than one package/variety each). I'll bet more people have bought Snuggies!

vespacar wrote:""90 million capsules to date"" Someone must like them. I've been keeping an eye out when I go to the Sara Lee outlet store in Grove city, PA . Nothing yet but I'll at least give them a try!

Cheers,
vespacar

I agree - I would gladly try them too.

jbviau wrote:Since there are 10 capsules per package, that's 9 million discrete purchases at most (and probably fewer if people bought more than one package/variety each). I'll bet more people have bought Snuggies!

That is 90 million capsules mostly in France, and since April so only 8 full months - thats better than a million sleeves a month in a country of 65 million. Say 30 million are adults who might own a Nespresso. If these adults share a residence and a machine, then you have 15 million couples possibly with a machine. I doubt market penetration is even close to 60%, but that gives us 9 million machines, or one sleeve only for each household.

Actual market penetration is much lower than 60 % though:
http://www.stockmarketdigital.com/news/ ... ee-dispute

"The market is far from mature, even in markets such as France and Switzerland," said Switzerland-based consultant James Amoroso. "In fact, this market has only started to develop," he said, estimating that the penetration rate in Switzerland is hovering at about 20% and that the figure in France is even lower. France, Switzerland and Spain are so far considered to be among the most attractive markets."

So plugging 15% penetration into the first example give us 4 sleeves per household, or one sleeve for each variety at the very least. If only 50% of Nespresso owners bought at all then they each purchased at least 8 sleeves - in 8 months. This pure speculation and estimation but any error would be contributing to underestimating the repeat business these capsules have apparently earned in France.

Devil's advocate: It's not as if only French people could buy these in France during that time!

Just to be clear, I'd give them a fair shake, too, and I welcome the competition. I just can't ignore the fact that I've never read a good review of one. I checked back in on that French link I posted on p. 1, and nothing seems to have changed recently in that regard.

jbviau wrote:Devil's advocate: It's not as if only French people could buy these in France during that time!

I thought that was my job

"In just eight months, Sara Lee has sold more than 90 million L'OR EspressO capsules and gained as a result a 3.5% share of the total French retail roast-and-ground coffee market."
Not sure if this includes Senseo pods too but still the numbers are impressive. That is literally a hill of beans...

My more selfish concern deals with the choice to use plastic instead of aluminum for the capsule - I wonder if the center punch on my machine will go through plastic - especially if it is thick yet slightly flexible plastic. I am down for a sleeve to find out though.

There's room for lots of devils! What I meant was that people could be buying these while in France (tourists, businesspeople) and bringing them back to their home countries, but anyways. I guess I should give Sara Lee *some* credit. Right, some people seem to be having piercing issues. I'm also a little put off by the fact that they have to individually wrap the capsules since they're not hermetically sealed.

Link again (in case anyone missed it): http://www.miamz.fr/innovation/lor-espr ... cafe-4553/

I read the posts in that link - a couple posts report poor results using these capsules with a unit (Magimix 150/Krups 995) similar to mine - I changed my facebook status back from "it's complicated" to "in a relationship" with Nespresso.

The thing that I find troubling is that they really are not that much cheaper, so unless they are comparable to nespresso why would you keep using them?

Cheers,
vespacar