About Breville®

"For us, the ultimate appliance is one that gets used every day."
-John O'Brien, 1927-2003

When 4-1 pony Peter Pan finished first in the 1932 Melbourne Cup, radio salesman Bill O'Brien and engineer Harry Norville invested their winnings in starting their dream company, Breville Radio. The word "Breville" is derived from the founder's names, O'Brien and Norville. During World War II, Breville helped the Allied troops by manufacturing mine detectors. Later with radio's popularity waning to television by the late 1950s, Breville turned its focus to small appliances.

Bill's son, John O'Brien, showed a passionate interest in growing the small Australian appliance company. He founded the Breville Research and Development center in 1972. Two years later, Breville introduced the world's first scissor-action sandwich maker. The first year this Snack 'n' Sandwich Toaster sold 400,000 units-one of the most successful product launches in Australian history.

Today, from New Zealand to the UK, toasted sandwiches are still affectionately called "Brevilles," so much so that the term has been added to the Australian dictionary. The sandwich maker's success was soon followed by the iconic Kitchen Wizz food processor, together with a range of high-performance, time-saving appliances such as blenders, dairy bars, yogurt makers, and waffle irons. By the early 1980s Breville had established an office in Hong Kong and was exporting its innovations to fifteen countries.

During the 1990s, Breville's hometown of Sydney was quickly becoming the world's most multicultural city with a craving for fresh, healthy foods and a taste for Mediterranean and Asian cuisine. Breville's revolutionary innovations like the high-wall heating electric wok, the health grill, panini press, and award-winning Juice Fountain, and espresso machines, brought Sydney's "Café Culture" to millions of homes around the world. In 2001, Breville's merger with Australian kitchenware company HWI helped support the expansion of Breville's Centre of Design Excellence and bring Breville design and innovation to North America.