Smeg: from Guastalla to Milan, an Italian house with many trades

An Italian town, Guastalla, and a name written in capitals: SMEG S.p.A. The appliance maker has its headquarters there and offers built-in kitchen appliances and coffee machines. Its world reaches well beyond the home kitchen, though. Under the same name sit three units, each with a very different trade: Smeg Professional, Smeg Instruments and La Pavoni. The last of these has designed and made coffee machines in Milan since 1905.

Roots in Emilia… and in Milan

Smeg’s headquarters are at Via Leonardo da Vinci, 4, 42016 Guastalla, Italy. This is the base of an Italian company whose name covers several activities.

The oldest date attached to the group is La Pavoni’s: 1905. Since that year, La Pavoni has designed and made coffee machines in Milan. It is now one of Smeg’s units, alongside Smeg Professional and Smeg Instruments.

Two Italian cities therefore make up the brand’s map. Guastalla is home to the headquarters. Milan remains the city of La Pavoni and its coffee machines.

From built-in appliance to cup

The core of Smeg’s range falls into two families: built-in kitchen appliances and coffee machines.

A built-in appliance sits inside the kitchen units rather than standing alongside them. Smeg has made this a field of collaboration with the world of design. The Musa collection brings together built-in appliances created with BorromeodeSilva Studio. The Isola collection came from the vision of Stefano Boeri Interiors. Two names, two outside eyes brought in to design household appliances.

For coffee, the range takes three approaches. Automatic machines with a built-in grinder grind the beans before extraction. Semi-professional espresso machines form a second category. Manual espresso machines complete the line-up, with or without a grinder.

This split lets you choose according to how you make your coffee. If you buy beans, the models with a grinder take care of it. If you prefer ground coffee, a manual espresso machine without a grinder fits the range. The semi-professional machines are aimed at those who want an appliance close to the professional world.

La Pavoni, coffee as heritage

La Pavoni has a place of its own within Smeg. It is the unit devoted to coffee machines, which it designs and makes in Milan.

Its longevity is the first thing that stands out: production in Milan goes back to 1905. Design and production are kept together in the same city.

For Smeg, La Pavoni is also a matter of aesthetics. According to the brand, La Pavoni turns coffee machines into luxury objects and works of art. The machine goes beyond being a mere appliance to become, in Smeg’s telling, a piece you look at as much as you use.

For professionals

Two Smeg units serve trades rather than individuals.

Smeg Professional equips bars, cafés, restaurants and hotels. Its products include minibar fridges, freezers and ice machines. The minibar in a hotel room, the freezer in a restaurant kitchen and the machine that supplies a bar’s ice all belong to this branch.

Smeg Instruments works in a different field: professional washing. The unit offers washing systems and thermal washer-disinfectors, which disinfect with heat. It has been in this trade for more than thirty years.

These two branches show how wide the activity is. The same name is found in a flat’s kitchen, in a hotel’s service and in the washing of professional equipment.

What Smeg claims

Smeg first stands for an origin. The brand says its appliances express “Made in Italy”.

It also highlights the effect of its materials. Smeg presents its matt finish as able to turn domestic spaces into sensory landscapes. The idea, according to the brand: an appliance that shapes the atmosphere of a room, beyond its function.

For its professional branch, the message changes register. Smeg describes the products of Smeg Professional as sturdy, functional and built to last. These are the qualities a bar or hotel expects from equipment that is used every day.

Finally, with La Pavoni, Smeg claims an artistic ambition. According to the brand, its coffee machines become luxury objects and works of art. Between the demand for robustness in professional kitchens and the aesthetic quest of its home collections, Smeg thus carries two messages that answer each other.