Braun Coffee Makers

From 1984 until 2005, Braun was a wholly owned subsidiary of The Gillette Company, which had purchased a controlling interest in the company in 1967. Braun is now a wholly owned subsidiary of Procter & Gamble, which acquired Gillette in 2005.

Braun GmbH (help·info) (German pronunciation "brown", commonly pronounced "brawn" in English), formerly Braun AG, is a German consumer products company in Kronberg im Taunus. There is also a factory situated in Carlow, Ireland.

Products

Braun's products include the following categories:

* Shaving and Grooming (electric shaving, hair trimming, beard trimming)
* Oral Care (now under the Oral-B brand)
* Beauty Care (hair care and epilation)
* Health and Wellness (ear thermometers, blood pressure monitors)
* Food and Drink (coffee makers, coffee grinders, toasters, blenders, juicers)
* Irons
* Clocks and Calculators

Formerly a manufacturer of radios, slide projectors, Super 8 film cameras and accessories, and high-fidelity sound systems.

Braun no longer provides replacement parts for their Multipractic Food processor, one of their most popular items. Braun's clocks are increasingly difficult to find in the marketplace.

History

1960 headquarter of the company in Frankfurt am Main
Braun Sixtant SM2
Braun SK2
Braun SK5, nicknamed Snow White's coffin
Braun D 40 slide projector

Max Braun, a mechanical engineer, established a small engineering shop in Frankfurt am Main in 1921. In 1923 he began producing components for radio sets. In 1928 the company had grown to such an extent, partly due to the use of certain plastic materials, that it moved to new premises on Idsteiner Strasse.

Eight years after he started his shop, Max Braun began to manufacture entire radio sets in 1929. Soon after, Braun became one of Germany's leading radio manufacturers. This development continued with the launch of one of the first combined radio and record players in 1932.

In 1935 the Braun brand was introduced, and the familiar logotype with the raised "A" took form. At the 1937 World's Fair in Paris, Max Braun received the award For special achievements in phonography. Three years later, the company had more than 1000 employees.

Braun continued to produce state-of-the art radios and audio equipment, and soon became well known for its 'high-fidelity' audio and record players, including the famous SK line. In 1954, the company also began producing film slide projectors, a mainstay of its business for the next forty years. By 1956, Braun was marketing the first fully automatic tray film slide projector, the PA 1.. Braun AG slide projectors all utilized a linear or straight tray as opposed to a carousel-type design, which allowed the projector to remain small and compact.

The 1950s also marked the beginning of the product that Braun is most known for today: the electric shaver. The S 50 was the first electric shaver from Braun. The shaver was designed in 1938, but World War II delayed its introduction until 1951. It featured an oscillating cutter block with a very thin, yet very stable steel-foil mounted above it. This principle is still used in Braun's shavers of today.

In 1962, Braun became Braun AG, a publicly traded company. In 1963, the company started distributing microphones by U.S. manufacturer Shure in Germany. Also during the 1960s, Braun created the Rams-designed T3 pocket radio. By this time, Braun's film slide projectors were featuring high-quality optics and all-metal construction combined with sleek Functionalist styling, and competed with higher-end Eastman Kodak and Leitz products in the global market. In 1967, a majority share of the company was acquired by the Boston, Massachusetts-based conglomerate Gillette Group.

By the 1970s, Braun had begun to focus on home consumer appliances, including shavers, coffee makers, razors, clocks, and radios. The company's line of film slide projectors and hi-fi products was discontinued. In 1998, Braun AG was transformed into a privately held company.

In 1981, the company's audio and hi-fidelity division, which grew out of Braun's former core business of radios, turntables, and hi-fidelity audio products, was spun off into Braun Electronic GmbH, a legally independent Gillette subsidiary. Braun Electronic GmbH put out its last audio-fi set in 1990 before the business was discontinued. Also in the early 1980s, Braun sold its photographic and slide projector division to Robert Bosch GmbH.

In 1982, Gillette Group moved to integrate Braun with the parent company by taking full control over its operations. In 1984, Braun ceased the production of cigarette lighters. That same year, Braun became a wholly owned subsidiary of Gillette.

By the mid-1990s, Braun held a leading position among the world's home appliance manufacturers, but profitability concerns began to surface. Many of Braun's competitors closely imitated Braun designs and had them produced in low-cost labor countries at lower costs. The litigation commenced by the company to reverse the sales losses and damage to its product image cost Braun substantial amounts of money.

In 1998, Gillette decided to transform Braun AG into a private company before it bought back a 19.9 percent share in its subsidiary The Gillette Company Inc., which Braun had acquired in 1988.. The following year, Braun's sales organization was merged with those of Gillette's other business divisions to cut costs. At the end of the 1990s, Braun and Gillette suffered losses in several areas. Looking for ways to return to profitability, Gillette considering the disposal of some of Braun's less profitable divisions, such as electric toothbrushes, kitchen appliances, and thermometers, but abandoned the idea a few months later when no buyers were found. Braun's sales in those areas began to recover in 2000.

Gillette was acquired by Procter & Gamble in 2005, and Braun became a wholly-owned subsidiary of P&G.

Design Department

From the mid-1950s, the Braun brand was closely linked with the concept of German modern industrial design and its combination of functionality and technology. In 1956, Braun created its first design department, headed by Dr. Fritz Eichler, who instituted a collaboration with the Ulm School of Design to develop a new product line. In 1956 the company introduced its famous SK4 record player ('Snow White's Coffin'), designed by a youthful Dieter Rams. Rams soon became the most influential designer at Braun. Rams was a key figure in the German design renaissance of the late 1950s and 1960s, and a former teacher at the Ulm School. Eventually becoming head of Braun's design staff, Rams' influence was soon evidenced in many products. Braun's famous SK 4 record player and the high-quality 'D'-series (D25-D47) of 35mm slide projectors are some of the better examples of Functionalist design.

Another 'icon' of modern design, but less well known, is the electrostatic loudspeaker unit BRAUN LE1, the electronics were licenced from QUAD. Dieter Rams and Dietrich Lubs are also responsible for the classic range of Braun alarm clocks, collaborating first on the AB 20 in 1987. These designs were discontinued by Braun in 2005. For nearly 30 years Dieter Rams served as head of design for Braun A.G. until his retirement in 1995 when he was succeeded by Peter Schneider.

Many of his designs - sleek coffee makers, calculators, radios and razors - have found a permanent home at the Museum of Modern Art.

In the 1970s, a design approach influenced by pop-art began to inspire Braun products, which by this time included many common household appliances and products. Contemporary Braun design of the period incorporated this new approach in bright colors and a lightness of touch, while still clean-lined in keeping with Functionalist philosophy.

Reprinted from Wikipedia.org

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