Balmuda K. K.
Native name
バルミューダ株式会社
TypePublic
TYO: 6612
Industry
Founded2003 (2003)
FounderGen Terao
Headquarters
Musashino, Tokyo
,
Japan
Number of employees
100
Websitewww.balmuda.co.jp

Balmuda K. K. (バルミューダ株式会社), stylized BALMUDA, is a Japanese design and manufacturing company that produces small appliances and computer accessories. Its products have won international recognition for their designs, including Red Dot and iF Product Design awards. The story behind one of the company's early products was adapted for television in the NHK drama Hanbun, Aoi.

History

Balmuda was founded in Tokyo in 2003 by Gen Terao, a high-school dropout who pursued a music career for several years before starting Balmuda as a product design company.[1] The company's first product was the Floater, an aluminum laptop stand that Macworld praised for its design while noting that buyers would be "definitely paying—a lot—for the unique design and the production process".[2]

A Balmuda "The Toaster" toaster

After nearly going bankrupt during the late-2000s recession, in 2010 the company launched the GreenFan, a home air circulation fan that Terao had designed to eliminate the strong air currents resulting from traditional bladed fan designs. Terao claims that the idea for the fan, which combines two different blade systems operating at different speeds, came from watching children linking arms and trying to run in a circle, and noting what happened when faster and slower children were linked together.[3] The story of Balmuda's development of the GreenFan product was later adapted by NHK for a series of episodes in the 98th asadora Hanbun, Aoi.[4]

Balmuda has since introduced several more small appliances, including a toaster, a microwave oven, an electric kettle, and a rice cooker, with Balmuda providing product design and distribution but all manufacturing outsourced to other companies.[5] The toaster oven, called "The Toaster" and introduced in 2015, was not initially advertised to consumers, but sold so quickly that customers had to wait three months to get their product.[6] The company has also developed a signature food product, BALMUDA The Curry, intended to be prepared with Balmuda appliances.[7]

The company announced its expansion into Europe in 2013.[8] In 2017 Balmuda opened its first retail store, located in Tokyo's Ginza neighborhood.[9] As of 2018 it had over 100 employees.[4] Balmuda went public on the Tokyo Stock Exchange in December 2020, with an initial surge in stock price in anticipation of its entry into the smartphone market, but the company halted sales of its phone product at the start of 2022 due to poor reviews and general consumer disappointment, leading to a sharp drop in share price.[10]

Product design

Balmuda has drawn comparisons to Apple Inc. for its approach to "turning humidifiers, toasters, and space heaters into objects of desire".[11] The original GreenFan received a Red Dot Award and iF Product Design Award.[12] Several subsequent products have also received iF Design Awards, including two Gold Awards.[13] Balmuda's product design has been imitated by other manufacturers, and the company has taken legal action to challenge products of apparently similar design, such as air purifiers produced by Chinese manufacturer Xiaomi.[14]

References

  1. ↑ Cotani, Tomonari (September 10, 2012). "Balmuda: Re-inventing Wind". WIRED Japan (in Japanese). Vol. 5. Retrieved January 1, 2019.
  2. ↑ Frakes, Dan (September 21, 2007). "Grand stands". Macworld. Archived from the original on January 3, 2019. Retrieved January 1, 2019.
  3. ↑ Terao, Gen (September 3, 2015). "トップ > バルミューダ・寺尾玄「"脱常識"家電メーカーのつくり方」 > バルミューダ・寺尾玄：「二重構造の羽根」「DCモーター」には、こうしてたどり着いた". Nikkei BP (in Japanese). Archived from the original on May 16, 2017. Retrieved January 1, 2019.
  4. 1 2 "【半分、青い。】バルミューダ寺尾玄社長、劇中製品開発に協力". Oricon News (in Japanese). September 6, 2018. Archived from the original on January 2, 2019. Retrieved January 1, 2019.
  5. ↑ "Japan's upstart appliance makers winning over consumers". Nikkei Asian Review. September 17, 2017. Archived from the original on January 2, 2019. Retrieved January 1, 2019.
  6. ↑ Stevenson, Reed (July 3, 2016). "Meet Balmuda, the $230 Toaster From Japan". Bloomberg. Archived from the original on January 2, 2019. Retrieved January 1, 2019.
  7. ↑ 益成, 恭子 (June 18, 2018). "バルミューダ社長が語るカレー誕生秘話 味の鉄則は「あしたのジョー」". Women's Wear Daily Japan (in Japanese). Retrieved January 1, 2019.
  8. ↑ "バルミューダ、ドイツに現法設立－高級扇風機を展開". Asahi Shimbun. April 8, 2013. Archived from the original on December 20, 2013. Retrieved January 1, 2019.
  9. ↑ 衣川, 枝里 (April 11, 2018). "「BALMUDA The Toaster」に白とブルーの爽やかな限定カラーモデル". My Navi News (in Japanese). Archived from the original on January 2, 2019. Retrieved January 1, 2019.
  10. ↑ Nussey, Sam (January 11, 2022). "Japan toaster startup smartphone foray craters stock price". Reuters. Archived from the original on April 1, 2022. Retrieved March 31, 2022.
  11. ↑ Hall, Kenji (April 1, 2017). "A Toast to Good Design". Monocle. Vol. 11, no. 102. pp. 70–71. Retrieved January 1, 2019.
  12. ↑ "Frische Brise anstatt Luftzug". Architektur Zeitung (in German). July 22, 2013. Archived from the original on January 2, 2019. Retrieved January 1, 2018.
  13. ↑ "iF World Design Guide: Balmuda, Inc". International Forum Design. Archived from the original on January 2, 2019. Retrieved January 1, 2019.
  14. ↑ Kan, Michael (December 11, 2014). "Xiaomi faces copycat charge from Japanese company over new air purifier". PCWorld. Archived from the original on April 29, 2019. Retrieved January 1, 2019.
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