After giving Australian retailers a sneak peek at last year’s IFA trade show in Berlin, Jura is finally bringing its newest design-focused espresso machine to the Australian market, targeting coffee lovers and aesthetes alike.
The limited-edition Impressa J9.3 Carbon maintains the internal mechanics and build of the brand’s popular One Touch TFT-screen machine, but adds a distinctive hand-made carbon fibre shell to the outside — the same material used in jet planes and high-end sports cars.
According to Jura Australia head of sales George Liakatos, the machine was a “huge success” at IFA last year, and it has a “spectacular” design that is set to gain the attention of serious design lovers.
“A customer will look at it and say, ‘That’s what I want in my kitchen’,” Liakatos told Appliance Retailer.
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The model is not the only device to be launched into the Australian market this year — the brand is rolling out a number of new machines, including the brand’s first compact Impressa series machine, the Impressa A5, available in Platinum and Bordeaux Red (RRP $1,590).
At just 24 centimetres wide and 32 centimetres high, the A5 certainly has a tidy form factor, and features chrome and piano black accents to give it a “razor sharp design”.
The A5 is joined by the new Impressa F8 TFT (Piano Black, RRP $1,850), which offers another first for the Impressa range, integrating a colour TFT display with rotary selection under the $2,000 price point.
The addition of the deep Bordeaux Red finish to the line-up sees a return to colour for Jura in the Australian market, as Liakatos explained.
“We were the first really to introduce colour into bean-to-cup machines when we introduced the ENA line,” he said. “It was really successful, but in terms of sales, those really cool colours like the bright greens, the sky blues, didn’t really translate in the market very well. And that’s why we had a break.”
The Jura Australia team gauged retailers’ reactions to the new Impressa A5 colours after their launch at IFA in 2013, with red and platinum chosen as “popular” stand outs by the very people that would end up selling the machines.
According to Liakatos, the new Jura line-up for 2014 represents a strong push into the higher end of the coffee category.
“We’ve had good success with our entry point machines, but now we really want to focus more in that mid-to-premium segment,” he said. “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.”
The Jura Impressa J9.3 Carbon is available in selected Harvey Norman and Myer stores for RRP $3,150.
