Jura is setting its sights on growth in the premium segment of the coffee category as the Swiss company celebrates a year of increased revenues, growing brand awareness and the anniversary of one of its best-known machines.
Revenue for the Jura group grew 3.2 per cent in 2013, up from 349 million Swiss Francs (CHF) to CHF 360 million. While this was largely driven by growth in the European market, including Eastern Europe (where Jura recently set up a new office), Jura’s operations in the rest of the world also saw value growth. In total, the brand sold 270,000 machines across the world.
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The company saw success with its professional coffee machines during 2013, including the launch of a new machine dedicated to the catering and food service industries, but the brand’s domestic machines also saw a fair deal of attention. Two Jura machines, the Ena Micro 9 and Impressa C50/C55, were called out for special mention in Germany’s “test” magazine — a leading product review title that rates and slates products from a wide variety of categories, similar to Choice or Canstar.
The brand also hailed the launch of its most recent Roger Federer advertisement as a success for the company — after airing in Australia last year, the commercial is set for a broader release around the globe.
The company has also set its sights on growth for the year ahead, according to Jura general manager Emanuel Probst.
“Over the next few years, Jura will grow mainly in its traditional core markets,” said Probst. “Again, Europe will be the driver for growth.
“For 2014, Jura has set itself the target of moderate growth to 275,000 units. This growth will be helped by new products at the premium end of their respective segments. Jura aims to satisfy consumer needs through innovation and set new standards in relevant product categories.”
That focus on premium models is something retailers can expect to see in the local market, not just overseas. Jura Australia head of sales George Liakatos recently told Appliance Retailer that the brand would renew it’s focus on high end coffee machines in the coming year:
We’ve had good success with our entry point machines, but now we really want to focus more in that mid-to-premium segment. There’s so much happening in that entry space: with capsules there’s fierce competition and even with some of the bean-to-cup machines, we’re seeing a lot of new models focused in that entry level.
I think now we’re finding that people generally are choosing between a capsule system or an automatic system, and if they are going to go to a bean-to-cup machine, they’re probably prepared to invest a little bit more up front because they know the ongoing cost won’t be as high. I think, longterm for us, there’ll be more growth in that mid-to-premium segment.
With that in mind, the brand is launching a limited-edition carbon fibre Impressa J9.3 machine to the market, as well as a compact Impressa A5 (available in Platinum and Bordeaux Red) and the new Impressa F8 TFT — the first machine from the company to feature a colour TFT display, under the $2,000 price point.
The new Impressa machines come as Jura celebrates a special anniversary in 2014, marking 20 years since the first Impressa machine was launched in 1994. According to the company, “This was an important milestone in the company’s history, signalling the shift in focus towards automatic speciality coffee machines and an international orientation”.
