Bravilor Bonamat Brand Guidelines: A 1948 Dutch Family Coffee-Machine Maker in Heerhugowaard

A wholesale trade that turned to making machines.

Bravilor Bonamat is a Dutch maker of coffee machines for offices, catering and hospitality. English Wikipedia says it was founded in Amsterdam in 1948 by A.J.M. Verheijen, and that it began as a wholesale reseller of espresso machines before branching out into manufacturing. The Polish regional news site BIA24 gave the same outline in July 2017: the business dates from 1948, the family first sold machines wholesale and later began making them, and it was then run by the founder’s grandson, Guus W. Verheijen.

The company still calls itself a family business. Its website opens with the line “Brewing your coffee since 1948,” says the firm has been passed down through each generation, and describes its purpose as serving “the perfect cup of coffee.” It puts its growth down to steady investment in in-house production and in research and development, and it describes itself as a leading manufacturer of filter coffee machines, espresso machines, fully automatic coffee machines and hot-water dispensers, supplying roasters and operators around the world.

Production is centred on Heerhugowaard, in North Holland, where the company has its headquarters. Its website says the site includes a metal shop, an assembly shop, a tool shop and several warehouses. The regional broadcaster NH Nieuws described the business there in August 2020 as a worldwide supplier of filter coffee machines, espresso machines, bean-to-cup machines and water boilers, which also builds machines for large coffee roasters.

From quick filters to bean-to-cup.

For most of its history Bravilor Bonamat made its machines only in the Netherlands. That changed in Poland. BIA24 reported on 31 July 2017 that construction had begun on a new plant at Dojlidy, on industrial land of the Suwałki Special Economic Zone in Białystok, to make filter and pressure coffee machines as well as new models. The site said the owner had first looked at the Łódź Special Economic Zone before choosing Białystok, that the company had committed to at least 30 jobs there with several hundred expected in time, and that the machines would go mainly to restaurants and hotels, as well as shopping centres and hospitals around the world. English Wikipedia, citing a company announcement of October 2018, says the second factory opened in 2018. The company now describes Białystok as a production and injection-moulding site and calls its Dutch and Polish plants its “two centres of excellence.”

The product range runs from simple filter brewers to espresso machines. Under filter coffee the company lists quick-filter machines in the Novo, Mondo and Matic families, round-filter bulk brewers in its B series, table-top machines and percolators, alongside instant machines and hot-water and milk units. Its bean-to-cup line includes the Esprecious, Sego and SPRSO machines. English Wikipedia notes that typical systems can also make hot soup, froth milk or brew other hot drinks, and that more recent units can keep fresh milk in a separate internal container instead of relying on powder. The company sells the supporting kit too, from filter papers and vacuum flasks to milk coolers, cabinets and payment systems.

The company also points to its engineering. It says its innovation centre has produced more than 20 patents in more than 30 countries, and it singles out the CIRCO brewer, a compact rotational brewing unit that takes 6 to 18 grams of ground coffee and can brew two espressos at once. Bravilor Bonamat says it designed CIRCO for the growing demand for bean-to-cup vending machines, especially in office coffee service.

Sales run through offices in Europe and the United States and, the company says, a dealer network in more than 100 countries. Its American arm, Bravilor Bonamat LLC, is based in Aurora, Illinois.

How the category presents itself.

Commercial coffee machine makers sell mainly to businesses rather than to homes. Their customers are hotel groups, coffee-shop chains, office caterers and restaurants, and their products sit on hotel breakfast buffets, office counters, convenience-store shelves and behind café bars. Some build fully automatic machines that grind, dose, brew and froth milk at the touch of a screen; others build large batch brewers that fill urns and airpots for a busy service.

Much of the trade grew from a practical problem. SWI swissinfo.ch reported in 2024 that Swiss restaurants in the 1970s faced higher wage costs and fewer staff behind the buffet, and the historian Jonathan Morris told the publication that Swiss automatic machines set out to make coffee and milk drinks simpler for staff without barista training. Switzerland remains a centre of that business, with makers in Weggis, Zuchwil and elsewhere.

The machines now present themselves through screens and options as much as through steel. In 2025 TOP HOTEL Projects described one fully automatic model offered with touchscreens of two sizes, modes for staff service, self-service and office use, and interchangeable panels in a customer’s chosen colour. Milk systems, cleaning routines and service networks also feature in how these makers describe what they offer.

Launches tend to happen at trade fairs rather than in shops. HOST Milano, the hospitality fair held in Milan, is one such stage; specialty-coffee events such as World of Coffee are another. This guide sets out what can be checked about each maker — who founded it, who owns it, and what it says about where its machines are made — and marks clearly what rests only on the company’s own word.

A family firm that makes its own parts.

The pandemic produced an unusual side product. NH Nieuws reported in August 2020 that demand for the company’s machines had collapsed as offices, factories and sports canteens closed, and that Bravilor Bonamat had quickly developed a foot-pump dispenser stand together with its sister company Geerts Metaalwaren. One went to the Laurentiuskerk in Alkmaar, where it dispensed holy water rather than sanitiser.

The company’s sustainability pages describe circular design principles: machines meant to be easy to repair and refurbish, modular so that parts can be replaced one at a time, and built so that materials can be separated for recycling. It publishes a sustainability report and frames the work as part of a family legacy of more than 75 years.

No official typeface or colour code is documented for Bravilor Bonamat. The company’s own pages repeat its 1948 founding date and its family ownership, and name its machines with short, single words.

For a design guide, Bravilor Bonamat shows how a family manufacturer can present a broad range of everyday machines under one steady name. Compare Bunn, the Springfield maker of commercial filter brewers, and Melitta, another family-owned coffee company. For this guide we use a roast brown, a warm cream and a brick red with a sans, an unofficial interpretation; no product or logo is reproduced.

Keep Bravilor Bonamat’s identity on hand — save it to a board in the Made Good inspiration library.