Brother International Europe Brother LLC

Brother Industries Ltd. (headquartered in Nagoya, Japan) is a multinational corporation with production sites, sales offices and service centers in more than 40 countries. Brother's president is Mr. Ichiro Sasaki.

Global Performance Indicators

2017

According to a report by research group Quocirca, Brother is expanding its offerings in the managed printing services (MPS) market and has increased its sales share in Europe by 200% over the past year.

Data for 2017

2013

2013 data

2010/2011

The company's sales revenue for the past fiscal year amounted to $5.86 billion. At the same time, operating profit increased by 35.5% and exceeded $420.5 million. Brother's net profit in the 2010/2011 fiscal year surpassed $305.7 million, an increase of 33.7% compared to last year. According to Brother's annual report, the company managed to significantly increase sales in the Asian region. The most notable growth - more than 100% per year - occurred in the industrial sewing equipment segment: total sales of the Machinery and Solution segment in the 2010/2011 fiscal year amounted to about $774 million. Revenue from the sale of IT market products (printers, MFPs and fax machines - Printing and Solutions) is currently $3.96 billion.

Turnover - $3.8 billion (for 9 months 2008)

2006

According to research company GfK, by October 2006, the vendor controlled 17% of the European monochrome laser printer market and more than a third^[1] laser multifunctional device (MFP) market^[2].

Company history

The modern Brother was started in 1908 in the Japanese city of Osaka by a simple city dweller Kanekichi Yasui^[3]?

The company originated in a small family sewing machine repair shop. Gradually, the business grew: in 1925, the Yasui bartias - Jitsuichi and Masayoshi - inherited their father's business and named the Yasui Brothers "Sewing Machine Company. A couple of years later, the company began producing straw hats, and another 7 years later the first sewing machine of its own production was released. In 1934, the company was renamed Nippon Sewing Machine Manufacturing Company - the future Brother Industries, Ltd. In two years, production increased fivefold, and sales growth necessitated the creation of a whole new division in 1941 - Brother Sales, Ltd.

The growth of production allowed the Yasui brothers to set themselves a new task - to enter the international market. The first delivery of Japanese sewing machines took place in 1947 to Shanghai, and by 1959 exports exceeded the symbolic mark of one million sewing machines. During these years, the Japanese company gradually mastered a new market niche of electrical appliances: the production of electric sewing machines, hairdryers, irons, vacuum cleaners, washing machines and other household appliances under the Brother brand, including portable typewriters, began.

The first Brother portable typewriter appeared in 1961 - simultaneously with the start of construction of the company's new headquarters in Nagoya. In the same year, the company adopted the name of its brand - Brother Industries Ltd. In a matter of years, Brother's typewriter exports exceeded their "home" sales, and they themselves became for that time the same reference product as Sony transistor receivers or Canon cameras.

In 1966, the first portable electronic calculator from Brother was released, five years later the company made another splash in the market, creating the world's first high-speed M-101 matrix printer, and in 1978 - the first typewriter P-14 with letters arranged on a round head ("golf ball"). In the decade that followed, Brother mastered the production of a battery-powered portable electronic printer.

Brother's "globalization" of business was expressed in the adoption in 1999 of the corporate Global Charter (The Brother Group Global Charter), starting with the words: "Brother's main mission is to create and quickly deliver products and services of excellent quality to consumers around the world." And three years later, The Global Vision 21 strategic development plan was adopted, which formulated the three main strategic goals of the company until 2012:1. Become a leading global high-margin company; 2. Become a first-class manufacturer through the development of outstanding in-house technologies; 3. Make the advertising slogan "On your side" the basis of the entire corporate culture.

In 2008, Brother celebrated its centenary. Printing devices (printers and multifunctional devices) are the main direction in which the company is currently focusing. The company employs 23,809 employees worldwide in 43 sales offices and 19^[4] 's own plants^[5]the anniversary year, the company's turnover for the 9 months of fiscal year 2008 amounted to $3.8 billion, and the share of company sales in Russia was, according to various estimates, from 5% to 10%.

Global management of the company

• Ichiro Sasaki, President
• Yuji Furukawa, Senior Managing Director
• Shigeki Ishikawa, Senior Managing Director
• Kobun Koike, Executive Director

Brother in Russia

The main tasks of the office are the marketing of Brother products in the Russian and CIS markets, support and development of sales channels, logistics.

2020

Brother becomes the Guardian of the Far Eastern leopard Leo 106M

On June 8, 2020, Brother announced that Brother's Russian office is expanding cooperation with the Far Eastern Leopards Foundation and becoming the LEO 106M Leopard Guardian, the code name by which the leopard is known to the specialists of the Leopard Land Foundation and Reserve. Brother came up with a name for the leopard - Brother (Oniisan in Japanese). Oniisan (Brother) is a male. His age is about 5 years. Place of residence - the central part of the national park "Land of the Leopard," the valley of the Barabashevka River. First registered in 2016. Read more here.

Nail Himaliev - General Director of LLC "Brother"

2020 - General Director of Braser LLC - Nail Himaliev. In the CIS, 8 distributors, about 600 selling dealers, more than 250 service centers work with the company in the direction of office equipment.

2010: Appointment of Seiji Tsuji as CEO of Brother LLC

Seiji Tsuji - since January 2010, he has been the general director of Brother LLC (Brother LLC) in Russia. Previously, this post was held by Yoshiji Matsui. According to analysts of the Brother representative office in Russia, the company's market share in Russia ranges from 5 to 10%, depending on the segment in the period 2010-2011.

2009

In Russia and the CIS countries, Brother works with sales channels, constantly expanding the list of partners. In July 2009, the company had 9 distributors, about 600 selling dealers, more than 150 service centers. Like many vendors, Brother is fighting counterfeit products, which is expressed in actions to destroy counterfeit goods^[6].

2006: Registration of LLC "Brother"

July 19, 2006 in Russia was registered LLC "Brother LLC" (Brother PC LLC), which took on all the work on the import, customs clearance and prompt delivery of spare parts for service providers Brother^[7].

2003: Opening of the Russian representative office of Brother

The Russian representative office of Brother opened in October 2003. Prior to this, there were only separate, disordered deliveries of Brother products to Russian^[8] customers^[9]. In 2003, only 5 people worked in the Moscow office.

Brother Products and Services

Of the five business areas in which the company operates, "Printing and Solutions" is key. The products produced by this division are known all over the world - printers, multifunctional devices, marking systems, label printers and scanners.

Brother's products include laser, LED and inkjet devices, scanners, faxes, and label printers. The company is actively developing products for the rapidly growing segment of digital and smart technologies, among which are solutions for mobile printing and multimedia online services: the OmniJoinHD web conference, BRDocs - a cloud service for document management.

2025: Printer blockage due to use of non-original cartridges

Brother printers began to lock when using non-original cartridges. This became known in early March 2025.

According to Tom's Hardware, blocking occurs through an automatic firmware update, which is downloaded when there is an Internet connection. The problem also affected the Russian market, where Brother devices are actively used in the commercial and public sectors.

𝓲

Фото: Brother

The lock occurs in the background without notifying the user. The printer installs an update containing the cartridge check function, after which the device stops functioning when non-original consumables are detected. To resume work, the owner needs to purchase an original cartridge, which costs much more than compatible counterparts.

Experts note another issue affecting Brother color printers. After updating the firmware on devices with non-original cartridges, the color calibration function stops working, which was not previously observed. This makes high-quality color printing impossible even if the printer is not formally locked.

Brother took additional measures to complicate circumvention of these restrictions - the company removed old firmware versions from the official website, which deprived users of the ability to simply roll back to previous versions of the software.

As noted by CNews, by March 2025, Russia's Brother is officially represented - it has a Russian-language website and a wide distribution network. Brother printers are sold through the country's largest retailers and marketplaces.

Experts recommend that Brother printer owners disconnect devices from the Internet to avoid forced firmware updates. For Russian organizations, this problem is especially relevant, since many companies and government agencies use non-original cartridges to optimize printing costs.^[10]

2019-2020

Print Service

• Uninterrupted operation of the equipment;
• Freeing up the time of IT service employees;
• Reduce printing costs
• Transparency and predictability;
• Information protection;
• Easy scalability;
• One service provider.

2016

• Black and white laser devices of the 6000 series - three printers and three MFPs created for large enterprises. Each of the models has a set of characteristics and a range of convenient printing solutions, including near contactless communication (NFC ) support for secure access and user authentication, as well as a BSI (Brother Solutions Interface) interface to ensure transparent integration of printers and MFPs. This series of devices is characterized by increased reliability and high print speed (up to 50 pages/min.).
• The black-and-white laser devices of the 5000 series are three printers and three MFPs created for the SMB segment. This series provides reliability, durability, and advanced integration capabilities. Also, this line boasts the ability to easily and securely print from any mobile device.

Technologies and Company Certificates

• TSO 99 is an international standard for the environmental friendliness of office equipment developed by the Swedish confederation of professional employees - Tjanstemannens Centrealorganisation - in 1999. The first manufacturer of printers that meet TCO 99 standards is Brother ^[1]}}.
• Blauer Engel - the environmental standard Blauer Engel (Blue Angel) was established in Germany in 1978. The corresponding emblem is provided to the product after successful testing by an independent RAL Institute. Only the most environmentally friendly products have the right to use this internationally recognized emblem. A number of Brother models have the following emblem ^[2]"}}.
• Energy Star is a standard developed for certification of energy-efficient devices. Brother products are certified for this standard ^[3]}}.
• Innobella is a technology that includes a special ink formula, a special line of consumables, and specially designed paper.

Notes