Rombouts Coffee has been enjoyed for 125 years

30/08/2021

Created in 1896 by Antwerp's Frans Rombouts using a small manual roasting drum, Rombouts Coffee, a Belgian Royal Warrant Holder, is now sold worldwide.

Rombouts Coffee owes its great notoriety to the invention of the one cup filter with its coffee dose, which they designed for the Brussels World's Fair in 1958. It was the first pre-measured coffee in the world, well before the appearance of pod machines, advertised by George Clooney.

For the next two decades, since no espresso machines existed in cafés and restaurants, the only option for drinking a perfectly balanced coffee and escaping from a beverage that sometimes smelled unpleasantly like reheated coffee was to drink a coffee with the Rombouts label.

The hospitality industry worldwide was immediately attracted to this alternative to coffee percolators and more than 200 million of these ready-made coffee filters were produced by this family-owned company in the 1960s and 1970s.

In recent years, even if the context is less favourable, this company, which has remained totally family-owned, has been able to adapt by maintaining a good market share, mainly in Europe. The group headed by Xavier Rombouts has three brands: Malongo in France, Cuendet in Switzerland and Rombouts in Belgium. 580 people are employed by the group, which is based in Aartselaar (province of Antwerp).

Today, in addition to maintaining a high level of excellence, Rombouts Coffee is increasingly taking a fair trade approach, thus ensuring that the brand is associated with values of social and environmental responsibility.