Brother's history began in 1908 when it was originally called Yasui Sewing Machine Co in Nagoya, Japan.[3] The company name derives from an early sewing machine model, the Brother, which itself was named for the Yasui brothers, Masayoshi and Jitsuichi.[4] 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.[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.[7]
1960s Brother De Luxe manual typewriter
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 their low-priced manual typewriters.[8] 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.[9]
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).[10]
In September 2022, Brother celebrated a production milestone of 70 million home sewing machines made since mass-production started in 1932.[11]
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.[12]
In September 2012, Brother Industries manufactured their 50 millionth home sewing machine.[13][3]
In May 2017, Brother Industries manufactured their 60 millionth home sewing machine.
As for Industrial sewing machines, Brother introduced S-7300A “NEXIO”[1] is the world's first lockstitch sewing machine which adopts the Electronic Feed. NEXIO are world's first IoT applicable industrial sewing machines [2]. 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.[14]
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".[15]
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.[16]
On 7 August 2018, Brother officially revealed their new 2019 sewing machine product lineup[17] 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.[18]
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".[19]
In 2019, Brother announced their co-sponsorship of the Japan Pavilion at the Expo 2020 in Dubai, UAE.[20]
In 2021, Brother Industries donated €110,000 to the German Red Cross and other organizations in response to damage caused by the 2021 European floods, while Brother International (Belgium) donated €10,000 to the Belgian Red Cross.[23]
In 2022, Brother donated €500,000 to UNHCR to support its humanitarian relief efforts in Ukraine and neighboring countries.[24] Later that year, Brother donated ¥2,000,000 to the non-profit organization Japan Platform in response to the 2022 Pakistan Floods.[25]
"Company history books (Shashi)". Shashi Interest Group. April 2016. — Wiki collection of bibliographic works on Brother Industries.
"Product Guide books (Brother)". Brother Interest Group. June 2019. Archived from the original on 29 June 2020. Retrieved 29 June 2020. — Wiki collection of bibliographic works on Brother Installation Procedure.
