Genuine Heritage

We are a company, 119 years young in 2021. We were founded by Emmanuel Brasch in 1902, in Johannesburg. The company started out as an agency business trading on behalf of Western European manufacturers with a wide and somewhat unusual array of goods ranging from chocolates to womens underwear. In 1930, E. Brasch became E Brasch & Son when Victor jo... ined his Dad. Together they managed to steer the company and successfully trade in a time when the textile industry was secondary to mining and agriculture. Fortunately for them the economic policies implemented by the Government in the mid-1920s provided some protection to the textile industry, which together with increased production during the war-effort paved the way for a boom in the industry which lasted for many years after the war. In 1936, the year of Johannesburgs Golden Jubilee, E Brasch & Son took occupation of new offices in Ottawa House located at No. 1 President Street, in the Johannesburg CBD; they would occupy these premises for the next 45 years. From the time Victor joined the company, he successfully ran an agency called the Waverley Blanket Agency. Waverley is a well known blanket brand established in the late 1800s that still exists today. In 1956 the Frame Group of Companies, owned by textile giant and pioneer Philip Frame, bought the factories that Victor had represented. E. Brasch & Son continued to stock the Waverley brand, as can be seen on a copy of a rare SA Woollen Mill price list from 1957. Throughout the sixties the company continued to take on new agencies and expanded the range of products sold to the retailers. The staff compliment went from 3 to 4 when Chris Rayner joined the company in 1968 at the age of 22. Over the next decade or so, Chris would be instrumental in repositioning the company as a distributor of handy-craft products mainly for women. At this time the business started trading as Brasch Hobby. Chris eventually bought the company from Victor Brasch in 1981 and at the same time relocated from Ottawa House in President ...Read More