HOST Milano 2025 – A Brief Report

The 44th edition of HOST Milano has just come to a close, once again confirming its position as a global reference point for the Ho.Re.Ca. industry, professional foodservice and hospitality design.

The Context

HOST Milano is consolidating its role as an essential crossroads for the hospitality ecosystem. According to the data collected:

• The 2025 edition attracted 190,000 visitors, 2,050 exhibitors, 800 events and 700 international hosted buyers.
• Between 2021 and 2024, global production across the Ho.Re.Ca. sectors reached a total value of €166.2 billion (+9.81%), with professional foodservice alone accounting for almost €78 billion.
• The ice cream sector recorded the strongest growth, with production increasing by 50% between 2021 and 2024.
• In the coffee machine sector, the global market reached €10.36 billion in 2024 (+3.9%).

These figures are more than just data. They define the environment in which design and innovation operate: a rapidly expanding market that calls for thoughtful solutions, not simply aesthetic ones. Italy — and Milan as a trend-setting hub — continues to play a crucial role.

Personalisation as the New Global Standard

The dominant theme of the fair can be summed up in one word: personalisation.

From coffee machines to restaurant furniture, the demand is clear: every element should reflect the identity of the people who use it. No longer standardised tools, but objects-as-partners, configurable and made to measure like haute couture.

In the coffee sector, this approach translates into espresso machines that can be customised in terms of aesthetics, functionality and performance. A particularly emblematic example is the Atelier by Victoria Arduino, where the barista can configure their machine as a professional tailor-made product, choosing materials, colours and details that reflect their own vision.

But personalisation goes beyond aesthetics: it is also about production flexibility. New machines are designed to adapt to different contexts — from a small neighbourhood café to a large international chain — while ensuring consistent quality and digital control, whether operating at high volumes or with lower levels of output.

Beyond Espresso: Technology, Interfaces and New Rituals

If personalisation is the desire, technology is the means that makes it possible.

HOST 2025 confirmed how digitalisation and artificial intelligence are redefining the paradigm of coffee machines and professional equipment.

New interfaces are intuitive and touch-based, integrated with sensors and IoT systems. These are no longer simply machines, but connected platforms that learn, optimise processes and communicate both with the operator and with the venue’s management system. The result is an enhanced experience in which technology does not replace people, but amplifies their capabilities.

One phenomenon worth watching closely is the growing influence of China. In the coffee machine and food equipment sectors, Chinese manufacturers have established themselves as key players in the superautomatic segment, with a strong focus on electronics, connectivity and intelligent interfaces — an evolution very similar to what has already taken place in the automotive industry.

This expansion is not only economic, but also cultural. It brings with it a different interpretation of coffee rituals, increasingly open to global hybridisation.

Today, the “classic” espresso coexists with new consumption cultures:

• Nitro Coffee enriched with nitrogen foam;
• Korean Coffee Raves, morning rituals combining music and lifestyle;
• and pop variations that have become global cult phenomena — from Ben Affleck’s Frappuccino to Taylor Swift’s caramel iced coffee.

Espresso machines are therefore evolving into multifunctional stations, capable of combining different ingredients — coffee, milk, chocolate, tea and juices — through modular and interactive systems.

The Strength of the System: Replicable Kitchens, Unique Identities

In the world of professional kitchens, the key word is replicability.

The growth of large restaurant chains and the expansion of international formats require solutions capable of ensuring consistency, reliability and consistent performance on a global scale, without sacrificing craftsmanship or brand identity.

In this context, design is evolving from a purely aesthetic discipline into an integrated design system: a language made up of functional modules, advanced materials and intelligent digital interfaces, designed to reproduce the same experience across different contexts while maintaining ergonomic consistency and perceptual continuity.

At HOST 2025, this approach emerged clearly in the new concepts for modular and monobloc kitchens: integrated solutions combining engineering, aesthetics and Italian manufacturing culture.

One example is SILKO PI, designed by V12 Design with Vincenzo Marrone and De Castelli, which interprets replicability as a design value: a monolithic, sculptural kitchen capable of bringing the excellence of Italian design to any part of the world while preserving its local soul.

Gelato: An Expanding Italian Excellence

Among the most surprising protagonists of HOST 2025, gelato once again proved to be a global ambassador for Italian excellence.

Production grew by 50% between 2021 and 2024, while exports increased from €12.6 billion to €20.1 billion (+59.4%).

Machine technology, advances in materials and the growing importance of consumer experience are transforming gelato from a traditional product into a medium for storytelling and innovation.

The search for authenticity and personalisation is reflected in retail layouts, machine interfaces and new experiential formats that bring craftsmanship and design together.

Towards a New Hospitality Paradigm

HOST 2025 demonstrated that the future of hospitality is no longer shaped solely by technological innovation or product aesthetics. It lies in the ability to build experiences and systems in which every element — from the coffee machine to the professional kitchen and the gelato counter — becomes part of a shared language capable of bringing together function, emotion and identity.

Technology becomes a form of sensitive intelligence, personalisation becomes a storytelling tool, and replicability becomes a guarantee of global consistency.

In this balance between industry and craftsmanship, between data and culture, Italian design reaffirms its role as a bridge between human experience and innovation.