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.