英国卫报:奈斯派索的咖啡革命是如何被粉碎的(10)（在线收听）

Nespresso furiously litigated against its rivals, arguing that its patent systems were being infringed.

奈斯派索对其竞争对手发起了激烈的诉讼，声称其专利系统受到了侵犯。

Things came to a head in 2012, when a key batch of Nespresso patents from 1992 were set to expire.

事情在2012年达到了高潮，当时1992年的一批关键的奈斯派索专利即将到期。

That year, Nespresso lost its patent battles in Germany and England, and settled other outstanding cases around Europe.

那一年，奈斯派索在德国和英国的专利战中败诉，并在欧洲各地解决了其他一些悬而未决的案件。

Overnight, the company had to accept it could no longer stop third-party capsules being sold for its machines.

一夜之间，该公司不得不接受无法再阻止第三方销售在其机器上使用的胶囊。

Talk to senior executives involved at the time, and it’s clear the rulings were traumatic for the company.

与当时参与的高管交谈，很明显这些裁决对公司造成了创伤。

The court cases also made awkward PR for a company keen to promote its ethical sourcing.

对于一家热衷于推广其道德采购的公司来说，这些法庭案件还让其公关尴尬不已。

To many, it seemed that the Nestle Goliath had gone after smaller, pluckier, seemingly more ethical Davids and been slain.

在许多人看来，雀巢的歌利亚胶囊追求的是体型更小、更有胆量、比戴维斯胶囊更符合道德，结果被淘汰了。

It didn’t help that in many consumers’ eyes, Nestle was still tainted by the formula milk scandal of the 70s.

在许多消费者眼中，雀巢仍然受到上世纪70年代配方奶粉丑闻的影响，这对公司的发展没有任何帮助。

A report published in 1974, titled The Baby Killer,

1974年发表的一篇题为《婴儿杀手》的报告

showed how Nestle aggressively promoted formula milk over breastfeeding in poor countries, where clean water was hard to come by.

展示了雀巢如何在贫穷国家大力推广配方奶，而不是母乳喂养，在那里，人们很难获得清洁的水。

Some sales reps even wore nurses’ uniforms to gain an aura of credibility.

一些销售代表甚至穿上护士制服来赢得信誉。

The report led to a worldwide boycott and reform of its sales practices.

该报告导致了全球范围内的抵制和对其销售方式的改革。

Even today, Nespresso employees I spoke to said the memory of the scandal hampers its messaging around coffee.

甚至在今天，我采访过的奈斯派索员工都表示，对该丑闻的记忆影响了他们对咖啡的宣传。

More recently, the company’s reputation was further damaged when the Channel 4 documentary series Dispatches found

最近，第四频道的纪录片系列报道发现，13岁以下的儿童每周工作40小时，为雀巢和星巴克供应咖啡。

children under 13 working 40-hour weeks on farms that supplied coffee to Nespresso and Starbucks.

这让该公司的声誉进一步受损。

(Nespresso launched an internal investigation after the programme aired.

（该节目播出后，奈斯怕所启动了一项内部调查。

“Protecting children from exploitation and ensuring they are able to learn is of paramount importance to us,

一位发言人告诉我，”保护儿童免受剥削，确保他们可以学习对我们来说至关重要，

and that is why we have zero tolerance for child labour,” a spokesman told me.)

这就是我们对雇佣童工零容忍的原因。”）

Jean-Marc Duvoisin became CEO in 2013, and was charged with taking Nespresso to a new era, leaving the patent disputes behind.

吉恩·马克·杜瓦辛于2013年成为奈斯派索的首席执行官，他的职责是将奈斯派索带入一个新时代，将专利纠纷抛在脑后。

From a closed, Apple-type system – Nespresso products for Nespresso machines – the company had to move to a more open, Android-type model.

从封闭的，苹果式的系统——为奈斯派索咖啡机提供的奈斯派索产品——公司不得不转向更加开放的，安卓式的模式。

“There are going to be rival capsules,” Duvoisin told me.

杜瓦辛告诉我，“市场上将会出现与之竞争的胶囊咖啡的。”

“We need to leverage our strengths: knowing our customers, and knowing our farmers.”

“我们需要利用我们的优势：了解我们的客户，了解我们的农民。”

Having worked for 40 years to be the only coffee-pod system in town, the company had to pivot to arguing that its capsules – made from strong,

40年来，奈斯派索一直致力于成为镇上唯一的咖啡胶囊系统，但现在该公司不得不转而强调——它的咖啡胶囊由坚固的、

light aluminium, and filled with high-quality, responsibly farmed coffee – were the best on the market.

轻质铝制作而成，里面装有高品质，可靠的种植咖啡——是市场上最好的产品。

Eight years on from Nespresso’s annus horribilis, its biggest problem is the aluminium itself.

奈斯派索的多灾之年已经过去8年了，它最大的问题是铝本身。