Gaggia dates its history to 5 September 1938, when Achille Gaggia, who worked in his family's bar “Caffè Achille” on viale Premuda in Milan, filed patent no. 365726 for the “Lampo” system: a brewing group that extracted coffee with hot water under pressure rather than with steam. According to the brand's official history page, a second patent followed in 1947 for a lever-piston mechanism, in which a spring loaded by the lever drives the piston through the filter; in 1948 Achille Gaggia and the entrepreneur Carlo Ernesto Valente founded “Officine Faema Brevetti Gaggia”, which built the first machine, the Tipo Classica. MUMAC, the Cimbali Group museum, tells that step differently: Valente had already founded FAEMA in 1945 and agreed to industrialise Gaggia's invention.
The same page traces the move into the home: the Gilda of 1952, Gaggia's first machine for domestic use, operated by piston pressure; the opening of Gaggia S.p.A. in Robecco sul Naviglio in 1962; the Baby Gaggia of 1977, developed with the Japanese designer Makio Hasuike and described by the maker as the first mass-produced espresso machine; the Classic of 1991, with its stainless steel body; and the first automatic machine, the “Automatica Gaggia”, in 1993. Saeco took a majority stake in 1999; in 2007 production moved from Robecco to Gaggio Montano, near Bologna, the home of Saeco International; and in 2009 Gaggia was sold together with the Saeco group to Royal Philips Electronics.
Gaggia is now a registered trademark of Koninklijke Philips N.V., marketed by Versuni, formerly Philips Domestic Appliances, which stated in its 2023 name-change announcement that it uses the brand as a licensee of Royal Philips. The gaggia.com site, which gives its address as via Torretta 240 in Gaggio Montano, splits the range into automatic machines (Accademia, Cadorna Prestige, Magenta Prestige), manual machines (Classic GT, Classic UP, Classic E24), two grinders (MDF 55 and MD15) and accessories such as a tamper, a tamping mat and a glass milk carafe. The site carries the line “Proudly made in Italy”, and a 2023 article states that the brand designs and produces everything in Italy.
