WhereGuarulhos, São Paulo, Brazil
Since1918
FamilyIndustry and continuous roasting
History
In 1918, an Italian immigrant named Vitantonio Lilla ran a roastery in downtown São Paulo. The First World War cut off imports and he could no longer find parts for his European machine. He began making them, first for himself, then for his fellow tradesmen. This side activity did better than the roasting itself. So he sold the roastery and opened a coffee machinery factory, set up in the industrial district of Mooca. From there came what the company calls the first entirely Brazilian field roaster. For half a century, it built drums heated through their wall, what is called conduction. The turning point came between 1968 and the early 1970s. Lilla then switched to convection, where the hot air itself cooks the bean. The company gives two reasons for it, and not the same one depending on the page. Its 2012 site cites roasting quality. The 2019 one cites the weight gain of the roasted coffee, that is, less loss in roasting, therefore more coffee sold. In 1985, the Opus halved the roasting time. The Opus 2G followed in 1990, the 3G in 2005, the 4G in 2015, then the Millennium in 2017. Exports began in 1982, first to the United States, then Japan, England, Switzerland, Italy and Germany. In November 2018, at the 26th Encafé held in Uruguay, ABIC, the Brazilian coffee industry association, presented a centennial plaque to president Ciro Lilla. Since then, the company has added to its catalog the Chain-Vey, an American tubular conveyor that it represents in Brazil. This sales site, online in January 2022, is the last sign of activity that can be dated.
What it makes
Lilla builds drum roasters and roller, disc and hammer mills. Added to these are silos, weighing and mixing systems, elevators and complete lines. The house principle is a solid drum, without perforations, swept by hot air. Heat therefore arrives by convection, that is, carried by the gas, and not by contact with the sheet metal. Rotation now serves only to stir the mass. The Opus 3G catalog speaks of a semi-fluidized bed: the airflow is strong enough to lift part of the beans. This is not a permanent state, it is a mode. The third-generation interface makes it possible to switch from the semi-fluidized bed to a more classic profile, depending on the lot to roast. Second feature, the “Built in After Burner.” The roasting air, instead of leaving by the stack, returns to the burner, which burns its volatile compounds while it heats. A single burner thus does both jobs, heating and pollution control. The ducts clean themselves of the grease that the beans deposit in them. On the Smart series, the furnace is placed above the roasting chamber, which shortens the air path. An optional preheater recovers hot air from the stack to dry the bean before the charge. The same machines roast cocoa, barley, malt, chicory and nuts. Since 2022 at the latest, the company also represents the Chain-Vey conveyor in Brazil, which it does not make.
The models
The manufacturer publishes hourly throughputs more often than batch loads. The Specialty Roaster is advertised on the 2019 site at 25 to 75 kg/h. The leaflet of its ancestor, the Super 10, gives 10 kg per batch and five batches per hour, or 50 kg/h. The Opus Gourmet comes in Opus 2 (22 kg per batch, 110 kg/h), Opus 4 (45 kg, 225 kg/h) and Opus 6 (72 kg, 360 kg/h). The Smart covers 500 to 2,400 kg/h, with twelve to fifteen minutes of roasting. The Expert covers 750 to 3,000 kg/h, at six batches per hour. The Opus 4G covers 700 to 4,000 kg/h. For the Opus 3G, two sets of figures coexist, and the gap can be explained. The catalog gives the Opus 10 at 875 kg/h, the Opus 20 at 1,750 kg/h and the Opus 40 at 3,500 kg/h, optional preheater included. The product pages, without preheater, give 675, 1,350 and 2,700 to 3,000 kg/h. The preheater is therefore worth about a quarter more throughput. Loads range from 30 to 125 kg per batch on the Opus 10 and from 120 to 500 kg on the Opus 40. On the Opus 20 the floor diverges: 60 kg in the catalog, 75 kg on the product page. The announced roasting time runs from four to twenty minutes. The older lines included the QB-15 (15 kg, 75 kg/h), the HB-30 (30 kg, 150 kg/h) and the C-120, C-240 and C-480, given for 360, 720 and 1,440 kg/h.
What you gain
Convection delivers heat through the film of gas surrounding each bean, and not only at the points that touch the sheet metal. The surface therefore does not scorch, even on a small charge. Because the drum is solid, broken beans cannot escape through perforations. The manufacturer made this a named selling point, the “B.B. System,” for broken beans: a lot of ordinary quality goes through as well as a sorted one. The single burner reuses the air already heated instead of sending it into the sky. It removes at the same time the afterburner, its fuel and its maintenance. The preheater goes in the same direction. It dries the bean with stack air, which would be lost without it, and so costs no fuel. Since drying then takes place outside the chamber, the chamber serves only for the roasting proper. The Smart catalog puts the gain at 25% of hourly throughput.
What you lose
A convection machine is an air machine. The solid drum stores no heat for the bean: everything has to pass through the burner, the fan and the ducts. These are what make the machine's volume. A Smart 2000 weighs nine tonnes and stands 6.11 m tall. A third-generation Opus 40 weighs 16.5 tonnes and stands 7.95 m tall. That calls for a building, not a room. The Smart's roasting window is given as twelve to fifteen minutes, which puts light, fast roasts out of reach. The smallest documented load is 10 kg, on the Super 10. Below that, nothing, and no sample roaster in the catalog. Finally, technical support amounted to thirteen people on the 2012 site, when the company claimed fifty-four countries.
Gray areaThe official website no longer responds. Over http it returns a 500 error whose message comes from the host, and over https the certificate presented belongs to another domain, that of the shared host. This is a configuration failure, not a closed page: it therefore proves nothing about the fate of the company. Everything above was read in the Internet Archive. The founder's first name varies from one page of the company to another: Vitantonio in 2019, Vito in 2012. Neither his dates, nor his immigration record, nor any civil registry document were found. The year 1918 rests on the company's word and on ABIC's tribute for the centennial in November 2018; no commercial registry was consulted. The “torrador de campanha” that it says was the first Brazilian roaster is explained nowhere. It is translated here literally as field roaster. It could just as well designate a mobile machine, a farm machine or a seasonal machine. The date of the switch to convection is given twice in two ways, 1968 on one page, early 1970s on another. The reason given changes with the date, quality in 2012 and weight yield in 2019: it is not known which one actually decided the change. The Millennium, announced in 2017, has no datasheet, no published capacity and no catalog page that could be found: it is not known what it is or whether it is still sold. The gap between the Opus 3G catalog throughputs and those of the product pages is explained by the optional preheater. The load floor of the Opus 20 remains contradictory, however: 60 kg in the catalog, 75 kg on the product page. The batch loads of the Opus 4G are published nowhere. For the Specialty Roaster, the site gives 25 to 75 kg/h without ever stating the corresponding load. The 10 kg per batch used here come from the Super 10 leaflet, an earlier machine. Nothing says the 2019 entry-level model resembles it. An earlier version of this profile credited the Opus 3G with about 40% fuel savings over the Opus 2G, based on a customer trial reported by the Gazeta Lilla. This figure was not found in the readable issues of that journal. The only 40% found there concerns the Orion roller mill, said to use 40% less electricity than a competing mill. That is another machine and another quantity. The claim was therefore withdrawn. The same goes for the weight yield, the company's central argument, never measured by a third party in the sources consulted. The title of first manufacturer of roasting equipment in the southern hemisphere is a claim by the company. The same goes for the authorship of the integrated afterburner: no corresponding patent could be verified. The number of countries goes from 35 in 2004 to 54 in 2012, then 60 in 2019, with no list in any of the three cases. The date of the move from Mooca to Guarulhos is unknown, the Guarulhos address being attested only from 2003. The street number there went from 477 to 382 without it being known when. The ownership, the workforce and the current activity are not established. Ciro Lilla is named president in 2018, and nothing more recent has been found on the management. The home page captured in June 2026 still bears the 2019 copyright notice and the same text as then. The site has therefore stayed as it was for seven years. Finally, no independent trade press coverage could be consulted, for lack of a usable search engine during this work.
Manufacturer's website, “Empresa” page (founded in 1918 by Vitantonio Lilla, roastery in downtown São Paulo, parts unobtainable during the First World War, field roaster, 1968 milestone of the first pure-convection roaster without a cooler and weight gain, Opus 1985, 2G 1990, 3G 2005, 4G 2015, Millennium 2017, export in 1982 to the United States then Japan, England, Switzerland, Italy and Germany, 60 countries, more than 1,000 Brazilian roasteries, Built in After Burner), archive of April 30, 2019. Manufacturer's home page, archive of June 14, 2026, identical in substance and still dated 2019 in the footer. Manufacturer's website, “Notícias” section, post of February 18, 2019: tribute from ABIC at the 26th Encafé held in Uruguay in November 2018, plaque presented to Ciro Lilla, president of the company, by Ricardo Silveira, president of ABIC. English version of the site, roaster “portfolio” sheets (Opus 4G from 700 to 4,000 kg/h and from three to twenty minutes, Expert from 750 to 3,000 kg/h at six batches per hour, Smart from 500 to 2,400 kg/h and from twelve to fifteen minutes, Opus Gourmet from 110 to 360 kg/h, Specialty Roaster from 25 to 75 kg/h, roaster for cocoa, crushed cocoa beans, sunflower, cashew, hazelnut, peanut, macadamia, almond and chicory), archives of January 23, 2021. English version of the site, “Catalogues / Publications” page (catalog list: Opus 4G, Expert, Smart, Opus Gourmet, Specialty Roaster, Orion roller mill, CMP hammer mill, disc mill), archive of September 18, 2019. Former site, “100 Anos” page (founded by Vito Lilla, first manufacturer of roasting equipment in the southern hemisphere, conduction until the 1970s, switch to convection in the early 1970s for quality, solid drum), archive of January 4, 2017. Former site, “Engenharia” page (Built in After Burner claimed as an in-house invention, more than 54 countries, competitors having adopted the principle), archive of January 4, 2017. Former site, “Experiência Lilla” page (support team of thirteen people), archive of January 5, 2017. Former site, “Museu Lilla” page (Mooca factory, torrador T, countertop mills, eighty-eight years of existence), archive of January 5, 2017. Former site, product pages Opus 10 3G, Opus 20 3G, Opus 40 3G, Smart 2000 Auto, QB-15 and Opus 2 / Opus 4 (batch loads, throughputs without preheater, OSHA standards, EN 292, EN 1015, EN 418 and EN 953), archives of January 7, 2017. Former site, “História” pages in Portuguese and French (capacities from 75 to 2,400 kg/h, absence of afterburner, compliance with the rules of Los Angeles, New York, London and Yokohama, 35 countries, address Rua Constâncio Colalillo in Guarulhos), archives of November 14, 2003 and February 10, 2004. Catalog “The Opus 3G,” 4 pp., table of throughputs, loads and roasting times, note that the announced outputs hold with the optional preheater, “semi fluidized bed” paragraph, weights and heights of the three sizes. Catalog “Smart Series,” 4 pp., table of the 500, 1,000 and 2,000 models with heights and net weights, “B.B. System” for broken beans, furnace placed above the roasting body, preheater given as 25% more hourly throughput. Catalog “Opus Compact Gourmet Series,” 4 pp., table of loads and throughputs of the Opus 2, 4 and 6. “Super 10” leaflet, 10 kg per batch, 50 kg per hour, five batches per hour, Super 10 and Super 10 ECO versions. Gazeta Lilla, issues 4, 10 and 15, on the single burner, the recovery of stack air by the preheater and the installed customers. Site lillatransportadores.com.br for the Chain-Vey tubular conveyor, archive of January 2022. All accessed in September 2026, through the Internet Archive.