The story
History
Brother's history began in 1908 when it was originally called Yasui Sewing Machine Co in Nagoya, Japan. The company name derives from an early sewing machine model, the Brother, which itself was named for the Yasui brothers, Masayoshi and Jitsuichi. In 1954 it entered the home and studio knitting machine market. In 1955, Brother International Corporation (US) was established as its 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.
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.
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.
Brother competed heavily in the worldwide typewriter market, initially with its personal manual typewriters from its Nagoya factory and later with its own factories abroad (e.g., UK, USA), competing with brands that had dominated the international typewriter market—including with Japan's Silver Seiko Ltd. and others. In the 1960s and 1970s, Brother, along with Japanese companies Silver Seiko and Nakajima, were frequent targets of antidumping campaigns in the United States and Europe—for its low-priced manual typewriters. 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.
In September 2022, Brother celebrated a production milestone of 70 million home sewing machines made since mass production started in 1932.
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.
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.
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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, it was renamed Nippon Sewing Machine Manufacturing Co., then it subsequently manufactured 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, it introduced and manufactured its first computerised sewing machine called ZZ3-B820 "Opus 8".
They started making commercial/multi needle sewing machines in 2003 with the introduction of the PR-600. 2010 marked its introduction of PC design and editing software on its sewing/embroidery machines (Innov-is I) called PE-Design.
In 2013, it introduced a home cutting machine named the CM550DX.
For the Japanese market, Brother introduced a sewing and embroidery combination machine called Parie in 2017.
On 7 August 2018, Brother officially revealed its new 2019 sewing machine product lineup at its 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.
From Wikipedia’s article on Brother Industries, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.5