Lavazza CEO Targets US, China Growth to Keep Up With Big Coffee

When descendants of Luigi Lavazza were preparing to hand the reins of the century-old Italian coffee roaster to its first external manager, they took Antonio Baravalle to dinner, sat him down and told him what was expected.

The family knew that “sooner or later consolidation in the industry would start,” the Lavazza Group chief executive officer recalled. His job was to make sure that when they returned to the restaurant with their competitors, the Lavazza heirs would be “looking at the menu and not be on the menu.”