Breville basks in the glow of coffee machines as cost of living crunch forces more Australians to brew at home

Coffee machine sales are on the rise as more Australians look to beat the cost-of-living crunch by increasingly brewing at home. Higher coffee prices and less spare cash in family budgets have slowed sales at cafes and lifted home consumption, with kitchen appliance maker Breville telling financial markets on Tuesday it had profited from surging sales of espresso machines globally. It singled out its $3000-plus Oracle Jet coffee machine for driving sales growth between July and December. The Sydney-based company revealed it recorded strong revenue growth for its coffee machine business across Asia Pacific, the Americas, Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Coffee prices have jumped as the price of Arabica beans hits 50-year highs, translating to an average cost for a cup of coffee at local cafes of $5.50. Industry analysts have tipped that figure could hit $10-$12 by the end of the year. Retravision Osborne Park store manager Mario Nobre said demand for Breville coffee machines had “definitely gone up in the past six months”, attributing it to customers’ push into home brewing amid the persistent cost of living crunch. He also put it down to heavy advertising by Breville. “Overall . . . there’s a higher demand (for coffee machines) so far this year than there was last year but in particular the Brevilles have been selling a lot more,” Mr Nobre said. Mr Nobre said customers would “absolutely” get their money’s worth in the long run in buying a coffee machine. JB Hi-Fi, too, has seen a similar trend, with chief executive Terry Smart telling The West Australian this week coffee machines were also among its key areas of sales growth. As well as the coffee machines, Breville also reported strong interest in Beanz, its new e-commerce platform that allows customers to buy a coffee beans subscription from specialty roasters. To date, Breville has shipped over 1.3 million bags of coffee to more than 145,000 customers across Australia, the US, UK and Germany. “Beanz is a fundamental solution component for all customers experiencing cafe-quality coffee at home,” chief executive Jim Clayton told analysts. “The first step in cafe-quality coffee at home is using the same coffee they use in the cafe. This is the primary reason for building the service in the first place.” Breville accused supermarkets of stocking “bad, stale” coffee products on their shelves. Mr Clayton said Breville was in “full swing” moving stock into the US amid President Donald Trump’s tariff war on Chinese imports. Breville in November first warned about the near-term risk of material tariff increases on consumer goods coming out of China, which has since been slapped with a a 10 per cent levy by the Trump administration. As a result, the Solomon Lew-backed Breville announced at the time it would boost inventory levels in the US and move the production of its 120-volt coffee machine out of China. Breville says about 40 per cent of its sales would be exposed to the China-US trade relationship by July 1, 2025. By January 1, 2026, it expects this figure to drop to about 10 per cent, with further reductions in the second half. “Tactically, we landed some (second-half) inventory in the US early as a hedge against potential tariffs,” Mr Clayton said. Despite Mr Trump’s tariff war, Breville is eyeing direct entry into China with the sale of its Sage coffee machines through its headquarters in Shanghai, from the second half. It also plans to sell its Baratza and Lelit coffee machine brands in China through a distributor model. Breville has began selling directly into the Middle East from January via an office in Dubai. The company delivered a 10.1 per cent sales growth to $997.5 million in the six months to the end of December, with net profit up 16.1 per cent to $97.5m. Earnings grew 10.5 per cent to $144.8m.