Looking back on HOST 2025

Looking back on those five days at HostMilano, it still feels a little like a dream. We met somewhere between 200 and 250 café owners, coffee-equipment buyers and coffee lovers, some just starting out, others seasoned pros, and we came home with far more than email addresses. We heard honest, detailed feedback on our knock drawers and pitcher rinsers, and more than once someone quietly said, “We’ve been using your gear for years, please don’t ever stop making it.” That sort of thing stays with you.

The real highlight was the human connection. It was genuinely incredible to stand face to face with people who use our products every day, to shake hands, share a laugh, and hear the stories from behind their counters. Equally exciting was meeting so many new faces who were discovering us for the first time. Several of those “quick chats” in Milan have already turned into customers, with drawers and rinsers now heading out from Dublin to businesses around the world.

Our stand focused on our Knock drawers, sheet metal work and attention to details but in particular our stainless-steel pitcher rinsers and our domestic-range knock drawers. In 2017 those drawers were still a work in progress; this time they were front and centre, drawing serious interest from home baristas and small cafés looking for compact, robust solutions.

All of this played out against the backdrop of HostMilano in full flow, thousands of professionals, endless innovation and the buzz of the World Barista Championship on the show floor. Being part of that wider coffee community, and seeing our Dublin-made kit hold its own on a global stage, was both humbling and energising.

We went to Milan with products. We came back with relationships, and that, in the end, is what really matters.