Brother Industries history

In 1925, Masayoshi Yasui inherited the company and renamed it as Yasui Brothers’ Sewing Machine Co.Masayoshi, the eldest of ten children, began helping his father at the age of 9, and at 17 he began working as an apprentice in Osaka.

The first model was the chain-stitch sewing machine released in 1928, which was sold primarily for producing straw hats, says Stuart Stamp from Brother Sewing.

In 1932 they successfully introduced the first sewing machine made entirely in Japan.

The sewing machines sold and the company became Nippon Sewing Machine Manufacturing Co in 1934.

Renamed Brother Sales, Ltd., in 1941, the company began to apply its accrued expertise in motors and manufacturing to diversification during the postwar era.

But in 1954 the company launched a series of small and large home appliances that soon grew to include electric washing machines, irons, mixers, fans, and refrigerators.

In 1955, Brother International Corporation (US) was established as their first overseas sales affiliate.

Some of the side projects, like a 1956 motorcycle named the "Darling," turned out to be dead ends.

In 1958 a European regional sales company was established in Dublin.

The company launched its first portable typewriter in 1961 and changed its name to Brother Industries, Ltd., the following year.

In 1962, our corporate name changed from Nippon Sewing Machine Manufacturing Co. to Brother Industries, Ltd.

Brother had begun overseas production with the 1978 launch of a Taiwanese sewing machine plant.

In 1979 the United States federal government agreed and started adding punitive duties (58.7 percent) to each typewriter imported into the United States.

Brother produced its ten-millionth typewriter in 1980 and its ten-millionth knitting machine three years later.

By 1981 Brother's Information Systems Division carried one of the largest lines of printers.

By 1983 sales in this segment of Brother's business surpassed its traditionally dominant sewing machine sales.

Electronic typewriters were next in 1985 and the focus began to shift to more business oriented products and devices.

In order to compete with personal computers, Brother added editing screens and memory to its electronic typewriters and launched a word processor in 1987.

The innovative P-Touch Electronic Labeling System enjoyed extraordinary popularity, selling more than 1 million units within just three years of its 1988 launch.

In 1991 Brother proved that turnabout is fair play when it charged Smith Corona with dumping its portable typewriters from a factory in Singapore.

Becoming the TOP (The Olympic Partner) sponsor for the Winter Olympic Games in Calgary, till 1992

Smith-Corona, which by this time was partly owned by the British firm Hanson plc, succumbed to Brother's competitive onslaught (as well as other inexorable market forces), and sought Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 1995.

Global Vision 21 was established in 2002 as a mid to long term corporate vision of Brother Group.

In 2003, Brother began producing multi-function devices.

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.

In November 2012, Brother announced that it had built the last UK-made typewriter at its north Wales factory.

The Brother group delivers products and services to customers all over the world with 17 production sites (incl. four factories of Brother Industries, Ltd.) and 52 sales sites in 44 countries and regions of the world (as of April 2013).

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).