Ground Control Ushers in New Era with Flagship SM Brewer and CEO

The Ground Control SM brewer. Daily Coffee News photo by Howard Bryman.

Oakland, California-based coffee equipment maker Ground Control recently sent out the first shipment of its latest product, a versatile commercial brewing device called the Ground Control SM.

The SM ushers in a new flagship commercial brewer for the company, which publicly blasted off eight years ago, as well as a change in executive leadership, with former Bellwether Coffee and Blue Bottle Coffee executive Arno Holschuh stepping into the role of CEO.

Holschuh officially succeeded Ground Control Co-Founder and current executive chairman Eli Salomon as CEO in May after working briefly with the company as a consultant, then COO.

At the Ground Control production headquarters in California. Courtesy photo.

“Eli handed me the reins as part of a big pivot which included new funding and a mandate to start planning for the long run,” Holschuh recently told Daily Coffee News. “I’m extremely grateful to Eli for all the help he gave me when I was learning the ropes, and above all for leading this company for a decade.”

The Ground Control SM, meanwhile, was first introduced as a late-stage prototype in Spring of 2023, before earning a Best New Product Award at the 2024 Specialty Coffee Association Expo. It was initially referred to as the New Ground Control.

The versatile hot or cold batch brewing machine currently carries an MSRP of $7,850, which according to Ground Control is approximately 30% less than its predecessor, the Ground Control Cyclops, which launched in 2018.

The SM maintains the same fundamental principles of previous Ground Control models — incorporating immersion and agitation for fast brewing through multiple brew cycles — while offering a smaller footprint, plus more brewing features and connectivity. The Ground Control SM accommodates hot batch brew, cold brew, tea and espresso-strength concentrates, while allowing for back-to-back brewing for different methods. Holschuh said the machine can make a full batch of cold brew in just eight minutes, and enough 1-to-1 espresso replacement for 120 lattes per hour.

Courtesy photo. 

The machine comes stocked with 50 different pre-programmed recipes to get users started, or users can customize variables including temperature, time and agitation level.

Ground Control launched pre-sales of the machine in October of last year, although the launch has experienced undisclosed production delays.

“Before I came on as CEO, I think the team underestimated the difficulty and duration of ‘design for manufacturing.’ And then there was some best-case thinking about fabrication timelines,” Holschuh said. “Here are the three messages I want people to get from me as the CEO: First, every single estimated ship date we published was sincerely meant; second, we understand the damage that delays have caused, and we do not take it lightly; finally, we have implemented a lot of changes around here to try and make this a thing of the past.”

Holschuh said the company, whose headquarters is in West Oakland, recently added Anna Dair as head of sales, while also adding some other key staff, including some of the CEO’s previous connections at Bellwether, where Holschuh served as COO and, most recently, was the Chief Coffee Officer.

Said Holschuh, “We’re looking to increase our operational strength this fall to get ready for a big increase on orders we are seeing.”

Courtesy photo.

Holschuh said the company has about 90 pre-orders of the SM, while it expects approximately 1,000 units next year. Asked about the machine’s model name, Holschuh said it’s an acronym derived from a nickname that evolved organically on the production floor: Super Machine.

The company now hopes the super machine can deliver superior results for even more users.

“We have several customers who are operating multi-unit businesses and putting us in every unit,” Holschuh said. “We’re engaging with some pretty large enterprises right now. It’s interesting. Larger companies see us and they run the numbers on how much we will boost labor productivity, or we solve a consistency issue for them. There’s a fit there we are going to unlock.”

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