Expobar Brand Guidelines: The Spanish Brand in an Italian Group

Expobar is the Spanish espresso-machine brand, now a Crem International brand under the Italian Ali Group’s coffee division.

Expobar brings the badge round its geography twist — the espresso-machine brand that is Spanish in origin, not Italian, and that now sits, through a chain of mergers, inside an Italian group. Expobar’s badge is Spanish, and its answer to a round about the badge is that a Spanish name can end up owned by an Italian group without ceasing to be Spanish in origin. A brand, Spanish-in-an-Italian-group.

Its identity is the Spanish brand in an Italian group. The Spanish origin, the Crem International membership and the Italian Ali Group ownership are the story here. A brand, Spanish-in-an-Italian-group. The Spanish brand in an Italian group.

(Honest notes, so the origin and the ownership chain both stay exact. Expobar sells traditional espresso machines as its heroes — its Office and Brewtus lines have long been popular with prosumers — and we report its performance language as the brand’s own. On where it is from, the star theme of this round, it is Spanish: Crem’s own corporate account describes Crem International as the merger of Expobar, of Spain, and Coffee Queen, of Sweden, so Expobar is Spanish in origin, not Italian; a home city, sometimes given as Barcelona, we could not verify, so we omit it. On who owns it, the chain is worth stating: in 2008 Expobar and Coffee Queen merged to form Crem International; in 2015 Crem acquired Spengler; in 2018 Welbilt acquired Crem; in 2022 the Italian Ali Group acquired Welbilt; and in 2023 and 2024 Crem demerged to join Rancilio Group, so that Crem International and Rancilio Group now form the Ali Group’s coffee division, with Expobar listed among its brands. The honest framing is Spanish in origin, now Italian-owned through Crem. Its machines and marks are IP we describe but do not reproduce; there is no official brand hex; these tones are an unofficial interpretation.)

Expobar lives in a Catalan gold. Click a swatch to copy the hex.

Expobar’s identity is Spanish, absorbed and traditional — a Catalan gold, an ink, a pale wheat, a deep ochre, and a paper. The palette leans Catalan gold and pale wheat: a warm register that nods to a Spanish workshop rather than a loud logo colour, and it stays a colour rather than a flag. It signals a Spanish brand in an Italian group. The honest caveat: with no published brand hex, these values are an original, unofficial interpretation, not first-party colours.

The lesson is a Catalan gold signals a Spanish, absorbed identity. Expobar’s world is a traditional Spanish machine now inside an Italian group. For designers, it is a reminder that a Catalan gold and a soft pale wheat can carry a maker brand — a warm tone held as colour not as a flag. Because these tones can fail as small text, keep type dark and let the colour live in the accents, palette and band. The takeaways: keep the origin Spanish; state the full ownership chain; omit the unverified city; and treat any single hex as unofficial.

The register is a Spanish-origin sans — Spanish, plain, absorbed.

Expobar’s identity carries a Spanish, plain, absorbed spirit — a brand with a chain of owners, not a graphics label. A Spanish-origin sans captures the mood: clean, practical and confident, the register of a traditional machine. Set in a Catalan-gold palette, the Spanish-origin sans feels Spanish and absorbed — exactly the personality Expobar carries. It is a made machine rather than a logo, mirroring brushed metal. (Expobar’s real machines and designs are things we describe but do not reproduce, and the exact typeface is not ours to use.) Because it is not ours to use, the honest description is “a Spanish-origin-sans brand,” shown here in a stand-in. The type behaves like the brand: Spanish, plain and absorbed.

Expobar stands for the Spanish brand in an Italian group.

Expobar brings the badge round its geography twist. A Catalan-gold palette, a Spanish-origin sans and a chain of mergers make one thing — the Spanish brand in an Italian group — the whole identity: Spanish, absorbed and traditional. The Spanish origin is the pitch, and the Italian Ali Group ownership is the proof. The point is that a Spanish badge can end up Italian-owned, in a round about the badge.

Put to work, the identity is the origin told straight, chain stated and the unverified city left out. A steward in this spirit would keep the origin Spanish, state the full ownership chain, and omit the unverified city. A reader in this spirit would keep the facts right: Expobar sells traditional espresso machines as its heroes — its Office and Brewtus lines; it is Spanish in origin, per Crem’s own account that Crem International is the merger of Expobar, of Spain, and Coffee Queen, of Sweden, not Italian; its ownership chain runs from the 2008 Expobar-and-Coffee-Queen merger into Crem International, to Crem acquiring Spengler in 2015, to Welbilt acquiring Crem in 2018, to Italy’s Ali Group acquiring Welbilt in 2022, and to Crem demerging in 2023 and 2024 to join Rancilio Group, so that Crem International and Rancilio Group now form the Ali Group’s coffee division; and a home city, sometimes given as Barcelona, is omitted as unverified. Expobar sits among the round’s foreign-origin, group-owned badges. The honest editorial moves are to keep the origin Spanish, to state the full chain, to name Ali Group as the ultimate owner, and to omit the unverified city.

For designers and brand-builders, Expobar continues the badge: keep the origin honest — and state the whole ownership chain. The lessons: let a foreign origin stay foreign even under new ownership; state a multi-step ownership chain rather than flatten it; name the ultimate owner; omit a city you cannot verify; and never reproduce a machine or mark. It is also a reminder to stay precise: Expobar is the Spanish espresso-machine brand, now a Crem International brand under the Italian Ali Group’s coffee division — with the palette here an unofficial interpretation. Read that way, Expobar is less a machine than an absorbed Spanish brand: Spanish, traditional, Italian-owned. The lesson for a brand is that an honest origin and a full chain reinforce each other, and keeping the origin Spanish keeps the story earned. Expobar made the-Spanish-brand-in-an-Italian-group the identity — proof that the badge carries the round.

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