The Breville Story

On Melbourne Cup Day in 1932, just seven months after the opening of the Sydney Harbour Bridge, Bill O’Brien and Harry Norville scraped together 500 pounds in the midst of the nation’s worst economic depression to found ‘Breville Radio’. Together they built and sold radios to a generation for whom radio was the centre of family entertainment and a vital connection with a world in great upheaval.

Breville sold its radio division in 1951 with the advent of television but continued as a family business with a focus on seeking innovations for every day living. It was John O’Brien, son of Bill, chairman and passionate supporter of Breville R&D who discovered our secret to successful innovation: each working day, until his passing in 2003 at age 88, John read every one of the customer feedback cards. “It’s the most important thing I do,” he said. Customer feedback is still read daily by our Design, Innovation and Marketing teams. Customer feedback is, and will continue to be, the key to our success.

Breville has created some true product icons that have changed the way we live: our scissor-action sandwich toaster reached into an amazing 10% of Australian homes in the first year of its release (1974). Today, from NZ to the UK, toasted sandwiches are still affectionately known as ‘Brevilles’, and the term has been added to the Australian dictionary. Success followed on success with the ‘Kitchen Whizz’ food processor, the high-wall electric wok, the health grill, panini press and award-winning Juice Fountain and espresso machines.

Breville has grown to be a market leader in Australia, and over those years we have experienced serious illnesses like cancer in our colleagues and their families. We believe that we should not simply stand by and watch these social diseases consume our broader community. We have begun by supporting cancer research and, through promoting healthy eating, we want to tackle the emerging problem of obesity.

Breville is now a global brand sold in 30 countries around the world. And, like it was for Breville Radio, Breville Innovation is not just about products – it is about the way we live.

The Breville Story is a post from: OE Design Blog