One of the newest cooking manufacturers to establish a base in Australia is Bora, a German brand that specialises in high-end downdraft ventilation systems.

This style of ventilation, which can replace the traditional rangehood, is growing in popularity among well-minted luxury lifestyle consumers on the back of demonstrations being carried out in retail settings.

Unlike the rangehood, which every consumer has some experience with, Bora’s combination cooktop and downdraft extractors, such as the Basic (from RRP $4,399), require a live demonstration to close the sale.

One retailer gaining a reputation for putting on a good show is Designer Homeware in Camperdown.

“The demonstrations mean the end consumer can see how such an expensive appliance works,” said proprietor Athan Papoulias. “I could tell the consumer that Bora extractors can suck that much air but it doesn’t carry credence. When they see it working, however, they get the idea of how the well the product operates.”

Bora only established a local office in January 2013. It is currently sold through specialist retailers that cater to high end consumers. In addition to Designer Homeware, Bora is also sold at Whitfords of Five Dock, Prestige Appliances and Camberwell Electrics.

Julie Rankin is the marketing and sales support manager at Bora.

“Being a new product on the Australian market, we feel that demonstrating our product to consumers is a key part of showing how efficient and effectively the extractor system removes cooking vapours and odours,” she said. “To experience the vapour being drawn downwards is truly convincing but its many advantages, including the quietness, easy cleaning and quality of materials used in manufacture are also demonstrated.”

As amusing as the concept sounds, Papoulias was very convincing when he raved watching this appliance at work:

“You’ve just got to get people standing around watching — it’s an entertaining show — it’s unreal,” he said. “It would probably be the best cooking demonstration available – there is nothing as impressive as that downdraft system working.

“The system vents internally, it takes down all the grease, filters it through charcoal filters, and then doesn’t release the air anywhere. It’s pretty impressive.

“You can’t sell a downdraft ventilation system on spec — in needs a demonstration — you need to show that it works.”

Bora’s extraction system at work – doesn’t really do it justice – time for a demonstration…