Brother Industries

Brother Industries, Ltd. (stylized in lowercase as brother) (Japanese: ブラザー工業株式会社, Hepburn: Burazā Kōgyō Kabushiki-gaisha) is a Japanese multinational electronics and electrical equipment company headquartered in Nagoya, Japan. Its products include printers, multifunction printers, desktop computers, consumer and industrial sewing machines, large machine tools, label printers, typewriters, fax machines, and other computer-related electronics.[1][2] Brother distributes its products both under its own name and under OEM agreements with other companies.

Brother Industries, Ltd.
Native name
ブラザー工業株式会社
Burazā Kōgyō Kabushiki-gaisha
TypePublic
TYO: 6448
IndustryPrinters, Machinery
Founded1908 (1908) (as Yasui Sewing Machine Co.)
FounderKanekichi Yasui
HeadquartersNagoya, Aichi, Japan
Area served
Worldwide
Key people
Toshikazu Koike (Chairman)
Ichiro Sasaki (President)
ProductsComputer printers
Multi-function printers
Desktop computers
Fax machines
Industrial sewing machines
Typewriters
Knitting machines
Domestic appliances
Machine tools
Number of employees
31,314 (consolidated) 3,779 (non-consolidated)
Websiteglobal.brother

History

Brother's history began in 1908 when it was originally called Yasui Sewing Machine Co in Nagoya, Japan.[3] In 1955, Brother International Corporation (US) was established as their first overseas sales affiliate. In 1958 a European regional sales company was established in Dublin. The corporate name was changed to Brother Industries, Ltd. in 1962. Brother entered the printer market during its long association with Centronics.[4]

In 1968 the company moved its UK headquarters to Audenshaw, Manchester, after acquiring the Jones Sewing Machine Company, a long-established British sewing machine maker.[5]

In March 2005, "Brother Communication Space" (now the Brother Museum), a corporate museum that also serves as a public relations facility, opened in Nagoya.

In December 2011, Brother diversified its offerings by acquiring Nefsis, an innovator in web-based remote collaboration and conferencing software.[6]

1960s Brother De Luxe manual typewriter

In November 2012, Brother announced that it had built the last UK-made typewriter at its north Wales factory. It had made 5.9 million typewriters in its Wrexham factory since it opened in 1985. Brother donated the last machine to London's Science Museum.[7]

As of 31 March 2020, Brother's annual sales revenue had reached 637,259 million yen (US$6,044,666,710 at October 2020 exchange rates).[8]

Sewing and embroidery machines
Brother Innov-is V7 computerised Sewing/Quilting/Embroidery machine

In 2010, the sewing divisions of Brother Industries around Europe were consolidated into one larger company called "Brother Sewing Machines Europe GmbH". With a turnover in excess of €80 million, it is the 4th largest company under the Brother Industries Ltd umbrella of organisations.

Brother Industries manufactures mechanical sewing machines in Zhuhai, China and computerised sewing & embroidery machines in Taiwan. A new sewing machine factory was opened in 2012 in Đồng Nai Province, Vietnam, which is the largest single brand sewing machine factory in the world.[9]

In September 2012, Brother Industries manufactured their 50 millionth home sewing machine.[10][3]

In May 2017, Brother Industries manufactured their 60 millionth home sewing machine.

As for Industrial sewing machines, Brother introduced S-7300A “NEXIO” is the world's first lockstitch sewing machine which adopts the Electronic Feed. NEXIO are world's first IoT applicable industrial sewing machines . The visualization by connecting sewing machine and computer technology enables the customer to analyze, manage processes and speed up productivity improvement and maintenance work.

History

In 1908, Kanekichi Yasui established Yasui Sewing and Co. that provided repair services and parts for sewing machines. Meanwhile, Masayoshi Yasui inherited his company and renamed it to Yasui Brothers' Sewing Machine Co.[11]

In 1928, the company's first product was a chain stitch sewing machine capable of producing straw hats. The machine was popular for its durability compared to German machines at the time.

They introduced and began mass production of home sewing machines in 1932, when Jitsuichi Yasui, Masayoshi's younger brother and co-founder of their company, succeeded in developing shuttle hooks.

In 1934, they were renamed Nippon Sewing Machine Manufacturing Co. which they subsequently manufacture industrial sewing machines in 1936.

Their 200 HA-1 domestic straight stitching sewing machines were exported to Shanghai, being requested by the Japanese government.

In 1979, they introduced and manufactured their first computerized sewing machine called ZZ3-B820 "Opus 8".[12]

They started making commercial/multi needle sewing machines in 2003 with the introduction of the PR-600. 2010 marked their introduction of a PC design and editing software on their sewing/embroidery machines (Innov-is I) called PE-Design.

In 2013, they introduce a home cutting machine named the CM550DX.

For the Japanese market, Brother introduced a sewing and embroidery combination machine called Parie in 2017.[13]

On 7 August 2018, Brother officially revealed their new 2019 sewing machine product lineup[14] at their Back To Business Dealer Conference held annually in Orlando, Florida to commemorate Brother's 100th anniversary since its inception in 1908. The newest top-of-the-line Brother Sewing/Embroidery/Quilting machine is the Luminaire Innov-ìs XP-1. It features StitchVision technology, which uses light projections to virtually preview a stitch accurately and precisely, as well as a 10.6" by 16" maximum embroidery area.[15]

Other products
Brother P-Touch 540 label printer
Wireless multifunction printer Brother DCP-J315W

Brother diversified into manufacturing printers, label printers, MFCs, garment printers, Music sequencer, manufacturing/machine tools, and Joysound karaokes in the 1960s.

Advertising and sponsorship

Brother sponsored Manchester City Football Club from 1987 until 1999, which is one of the longest unbroken sponsorship deals of any English football club.[3]

Brother launched their first integrated, pan European advertising campaign in Autumn 2010 for their A3 printer range. Titled ‘141%’, referring to the ratio between paper sizes A3 and A4.

In 2019 Brother's UK subsidiary became co-sponsor of the Vitus Pro Cycling Team, with the team's name officially becoming "Vitus Pro Cycling Team, Powered By Brother UK".[16]

See also

References
  1. "Brother Corporate Data". Retrieved 4 October 2012.
  2. Soumithri, Mamidipudi (11 March 2015). "Japan's Brother Industries to buy UK's Domino Printing for $1.55 billion". Reuters. Retrieved 16 November 2017.
  3. Stuart D.B. Picken (19 December 2016). Historical Dictionary of Japanese Business. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. p. 75. ISBN 978-1-4422-5589-0.
  4. Brother Industries history
  5. "History". Brother NORDICS (in Estonian). Retrieved 16 October 2020.
  6. "Brother - Nefsis". corumgroup.com. Corum Group. 22 February 2013. Retrieved 24 July 2014.
  7. "UK's 'Last Typewriter' produced". BBC News. 20 November 2012. Retrieved 23 November 2012.
  8. "Corporate Data | Corporate Information | Brother". www.brother.com. Retrieved 2 February 2018.
  9. "Brother establishes a new factory of home sewing machine in Vietnam" (PDF). Brother. Retrieved 21 April 2013.
  10. "September 25, 2012 Accumulated production of home sewing machines has reached 50 million units". Brother.com. 25 September 2012. Retrieved 21 April 2013.
  11. "History & Legacy - Brother Philippines". www.brother.com.ph. Retrieved 25 September 2018.
  12. "1970s | Brother Group History | Corporate Information | Brother". www.brother.com. Retrieved 25 September 2018.
  13. "parie（パリエ） | 刺しゅう用ミシン | 家庭用ミシン | ブラザー" (in Japanese). Retrieved 18 November 2018.
  14. Ellsaesser, Cathy (5 July 2018). "It's Coming! New For 2019 Brother Sewing and Embroidery". rockymountainsewing.com. Retrieved 9 January 2020.
  15. "Luminaire Innov-ís XP1". Brother International. Retrieved 9 January 2020.
  16. Evans, Josh (27 November 2018). "Vitus Pro Cycling's 2019 Vitus ZX1 Team Aero Disc - Gallery". cyclingnews.com. Retrieved 15 March 2019.
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