A simple question changed the kitchen world: Why not extract the vapours directly from the hob? This vision gives rise to BORA, a brand that consistently challenges the status quo and transforms kitchens from functional spaces into real living spaces.
Before Willi Bruckbauer founded BORA, he worked for over twenty years as a master carpenter in Raubling on kitchens. Time and again, he came up against the same problem: the extractor bonnet. Loud, inefficient, disruptive: a foreign body in any architecture that did not fit into the open, beautiful spaces it wanted to design.
He wanted to create a system that would draw the vapour downwards more effectively than any bonnet upwards. That was his aim and objective from the very beginning. He couldn't let go of the crucial question: Why not extract the vapour directly where it is produced, on the hob itself?
In 2005, he breaks with the familiar. He sat down with cardboard, scissors and glue and built the first prototype. A version made of sheet metal followed later. He tried, tinkered and discarded. And in the end it worked. Physics became his ally and provided the proof itself: The steam rose at a rate of one metre per second, while the cross-flow of the flue pulled downwards at four metres per second. Radically simple, radically necessary and radically revolutionary. This is how BORA, the original, was born - a wind of change that not only changed kitchens, but rethought them.
The vision is in place, the solution works. But the world around him was sceptical. Banks waved goodbye, partners doubted. "Too risky, too far-fetched," they said. For Willi, one thing is clear: If nobody goes with him, he has to do it alone.
Without much start-up capital, but with the conviction that his idea was not only practical, but necessary, Willi Bruckbauer launched the first premium system on the market just one year after founding the company in 2007: BORA Professional. This was followed by the BORA Classic and in 2010 the award of the German Founder's Prize. Proof: This idea was not only bold, it was market-ready, unavoidable, a clear statement in favour of the extraordinary.
In 2012, BORA enters the international stage: The company is presenting its innovation to a global audience at EuroCucina in Milan.
Sponsorship in professional cycling begins at the same time. Millions of people see the logo at the Tour de France. The brand drives into millions of living rooms worldwide. The move into cycling had a personal origin. Willi, himself an enthusiastic cyclist, has known Ralph Denk, the manager of today's Red Bull - BORA - hansgrohe team, for many years. This connection resulted in a partnership that was far more than just sponsorship: It made BORA internationally visible - and still links the brand with professional sport today.
BORA is growing, developing new products and building a team. The idea that nobody wanted at first gradually became a brand with international appeal:
Willi Bruckbauer is still behind everything today: Visionary, creative mind and driving force. His claim is simple and uncompromising: Technology should improve life in the kitchen - more quietly, more simply, more beautifully.
It was clear to Willi right from the start: If BORA is to be successful, then only in the premium segment. Quality and aesthetics were not extras for him, but a basic principle. He therefore made research and development the centrepiece of the company. A claim that has not changed to this day. As a result, new products are constantly being created that complement rather than disrupt the architecture. Always with the aim of transforming the kitchen from a functional place into a real living space.
New working environments will be created in 2018: the BORA building in Niederndorf, followed by the high-rise building in Raubling in 2019. Architecture becomes an expression of the brand: clear lines, bold concepts.
Four new products will follow by 2021 - flush-mounted, quiet, intuitive. 2021 marks a high point:
With the BORA X BO, BORA is launching a steam oven that combines steam oven, extractor hood and professional functions and has an innovative self-cleaning function. Plus the BORA S Pure and the multi-drawer. BORA goes beyond the cooktop extractor and yet remains true to its mission of "more pleasure in cooking". BORA not only wants to bring new products onto the market, but also to set the pace in the industry.
Today, BORA is represented in over 40 countries. Prizes, awards and milestones are the visible successes. But the attitude is more important: having the courage to question conventions.
BORA is already writing the next chapter: The Vertical Factory in Niederndorf in Tyrol is a place where vision and engineering come together. BORA kitchen appliances are manufactured entirely in-house on several floors, which combine components, final assembly and logistics. As uncompromisingly well thought-out as the idea that drives them. Efficiency, sustainability and design merge here to create a place that arouses curiosity and shows how BORA is rethinking the kitchen.
The BORA founder story is more than just a success story. It is an example of how a simple question can become a movement. Willi Bruckbauer has shown: Those who persevere and challenge the status quo can revolutionise entire markets. BORA's mission remains unchanged: The End of Normal, because BORA is considered the original - then as now.
