Italian
Since yesterday, Wednesday, April 16, 2025, the Bialetti brand has become Chinese. The Luxembourg holding company Nuo Capital, owned by the Chinese Pao-Cheng family, has signed two contracts to acquire 78.567% of the share capital of Bialetti Industrie. The operation is expected to be completed by June of this year.
The little man with the mustache from Bialetti, the iconic symbol of the brand, imprinted on the coffee maker, has his arm raised with one hand “calling” for a coffee! It is the stylized portrait of Renato Bialetti (1923-2016), son and successor of Alfonso (1888-1970).
The Bialetti Story
Alfonso had founded the eponymous company, initially specialized in aluminum processing. Then, with a stroke of genius, his son Renato had invented the revolutionary coffee maker and named it Moka.
The name was meant to evoke the Yemenite city of Mokha, a crucial coffee trading center. Renato had given new momentum to the company, also through advertising, Carosello, and the motto “seems easy!”
On the coffee maker, the caricature of Renato Bialetti was intentionally placed, created in 1953 by the cartoonist Paul Campani. The gesture of the raised arm was a way to make him recognizable and friendly, a distinctive trait of his figure. And that raised arm, then, which from the back of a crowded bar meant: “a coffee for me too, thank you.”
Today the “macchinetta” for moka coffee is part of the permanent collection of the Museum of Design in Milan and the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
An example of family discontinuity
Renato Bialetti had 3 children: Alessandra Bialetti, Antonella Bialetti, and Alfonso Bialetti (namesake of the founding grandfather).
After his death in 2016, it is unclear whether the children had a direct role in the day-to-day operational management of the company.
In 1986, Renato Bialetti had sold the family company to Faema. Later, in 1993, Rondine acquired Bialetti from Faema, leading to the formation of the group Bialetti Industrie in 1998.
Over the years, the management of Bialetti Industrie has been entrusted to several managers and boards of directors, without direct and continuous involvement of Renato Bialetti’s children in top positions.
The Chinese acquisition is therefore just the latest step in a dismantling process that began many years ago.
It seems easy….
Actually, it is very hard to digest this Chinese coffee, especially for those who have woken up their whole life with Bialetti Coffee. Its aroma used to fill the entire house and made waking up less tiring.
The little man, with his friendly appearance and simple gesture, aimed to reassure the consumer about the ease and goodness of coffee prepared at home with the Moka pot, becoming a familiar and reassuring symbol.
A almost painful nostalgia assails you at the thought that a piece of Italian history is gone forever.
