Is Lelit Made in Italy?

It's a fair question to ask. Plenty of brands sell machines with Italian-sounding names that are actually manufactured in China or Taiwan. Lelit is not one of them. The company has been based in Brescia since its founding in the mid-1980s and still assembles every machine at that same location today.

Where Is Lelit Based?

Lelit's factory and headquarters are in Castegnato, near Brescia in northern Italy — roughly an hour east of Milan, not far from Lake Garda. This is proper northern Italian manufacturing country, the same region that produced much of Italy's post-war industrial output. Lelit didn't start as a coffee company though. The original business, founded in 1985 under the name L'Elettrodomestico Italiano (later shortened to L'EL.IT and eventually Lelit), made high-end irons and steam systems for clothes. They were good at building precise, compact heating and steam equipment — and that turned out to be directly applicable to espresso machines.

They moved into coffee around 2001, initially making machines for other brands before launching their first machine under the Lelit name — the Anna PL041 — in 2002. The Anna sold for around $399 and stayed their only coffee model for nearly a decade. Lean, but deliberate.

Is the Whole Machine Made in Italy, or Just Assembled There?

The full assembly happens at the Castegnato factory. Lelit is specific about this — their official position is that machines are "designed and produced in Italy" with the assembly process completed entirely at their headquarters. The components are sourced from various suppliers, as is standard in the industry, but the manufacturing and quality control is all done in Brescia.

For context, this is how most serious Italian espresso machine brands operate. ECM, Profitec, and Rocket all assemble in Italy. La Marzocco builds by hand in Florence. The parts — pumps, group heads, boilers, solenoids — often come from specialist Italian component manufacturers that supply multiple brands across the industry.

What About the Breville Acquisition?

In 2022, Breville Group acquired Lelit for approximately €113 million. This surprised a few people in the coffee world — Breville is an Australian company, and Lelit had been quietly family-run by the Epis family since its founding. The Bianca had just become one of the most talked-about home espresso machines globally, and the timing made sense from Breville's perspective.

The key detail: Lelit continues to operate independently. The founders joined the Breville Group, the leadership and engineering teams stayed in place, and manufacturing remains in Castegnato. Lelit CEO Emanuele Epis was direct about this at the time — the goal was to stay faithful to Italian heritage and design while gaining access to Breville's global distribution infrastructure. As of 2026, that arrangement appears to be holding. The machines are still built in Brescia.

Does Being Part of Breville Change the Quality?

Too early to say definitively — the acquisition is only a few years old. What's observable: the current range, including the Bianca V3, Mara X, Anna PID, and MaraX V2, still feel and perform like the machines Lelit was making before the acquisition. The build quality, component choices, and Italian-made positioning haven't changed in any obvious way.

The Bianca was launched in 2017 at Milan's HOSTS Expo and became genuinely iconic — a dual-boiler machine with flow profiling paddle and walnut accents at a price that undercut everything comparable. That reputation wasn't built overnight, and it hasn't disappeared since 2022.

Which Lelit Machines Does Di Pacci Stock?

Di Pacci stocks the current Lelit range in Australia — including the Anna PID for those starting out, the Mara X for those who want a heat exchanger machine that's genuinely easy to dial in, and the Bianca V3 for serious home baristas who want flow profiling and dual boiler performance. All are assembled in Castegnato, all are covered by Di Pacci's in-house service and warranty support.

If you want to see them in person before buying, our Sydney Roselands showroom has them on the floor. Or call (02) 9758 0760 — our team knows the Lelit range well and can help match the right model to your setup and budget.