Brio (stylized BRIO) is a

wooden toy This is a list of wooden toys and games. A wooden toy is a toy constructed primarily from wood and wood products. Additional components made from other materials are also sometimes used. Wooden toys * Akabeko * Ball-in-a-maze puzzle * B ...

company founded in

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic countries, Nordic c ...

. The company was founded in the small town of Boalt,

Scania Scania, also known by its native name of Skåne (, ), is the southernmost of the historical provinces (''landskap'') of Sweden. Located in the south tip of the geographical region of Götaland, the province is roughly conterminous with Skån ...

Götaland Götaland (; also '' Geatland'', '' Gothia'', ''Gothland'', ''Gothenland'' or ''Gautland'') is one of three lands of Sweden and comprises ten provinces. Geographically it is located in the south of Sweden, bounded to the north by Svealand, wit ...

in 1884 by basket maker Ivar Bengtsson. For a long time the company was based in

Osby Osby () is a locality and the seat of Osby Municipality, Scania County, Sweden with 7,157 inhabitants in 2010. Swedish ice hockey goaltender Magnus Åkerlund was born in Osby. The toy manufacturer BRIO was based in Osby, but moved to Malmö in ...

, Scania, in southern Sweden. In 1908 Ivar's three sons took the company over and gave it the name "BRIO", which is an acronym for: BRöderna ('the brothers') Ivarsson (in) Osby. In 2006 BRIO moved its headquarters to

Malmö Malmö (, ; da, Malmø ) is the largest city in the Swedish county (län) of Scania (Skåne). It is the third-largest city in Sweden, after Stockholm and Gothenburg, and the sixth-largest city in the Nordic region, with a municipal popul ...

, Scania. It is best known for its wooden toy trains, sold in Europe since 1958.

Lekoseum

In 1984, the company started the BRIO Lekoseum (from Swedish "leka", to play), a toy

museum A museum ( ; plural museums or, rarely, musea) is a building or institution that cares for and displays a collection of artifacts and other objects of artistic, cultural, historical, or scientific importance. Many public museums make th ...

featuring the company's products and those of other companies (such as Barbie dolls and

Märklin Gebr. Märklin & Cie. GmbH or Märklin (MÄRKLIN or MAERKLIN in capital letters) is a German toy company. The company was founded in 1859 and is based at Göppingen in Baden-Württemberg. Although it originally specialised in doll house accesso ...

model railways), at the headquarters in Osby. Children can play with many of the toys. Since the late summer of 2014 the museum has been run as an independent foundation, hence the official name is now only Lekoseum.

Products

BRIO is best known for its wooden toy trains, sold in Europe since 1958. Most are non-motorized and suitable for younger children. The cars connect with magnets and are easy to manipulate; in recent years, the range has been extended with battery powered, remote control, and 'intelligent track'-driven engines. BRIO licenses ''

Thomas the Tank Engine Thomas the Tank Engine is an anthropomorphised fictional tank locomotive in the British ''Railway Series'' books by Wilbert Awdry and his son, Christopher, published from 1945. He became the most popular and famous character in the series, ...

'' wooden trains in some parts of Europe, but

Mattel Mattel, Inc. ( ) is an American multinational toy manufacturing and entertainment company founded in January 1945 and headquartered in El Segundo, California. The company has presence in 35 countries and territories and sells products in mor ...

holds the ''Thomas the Tank Engine'' license in the United States. Many competitors, such as

Whittle Shortline Wooden toy trains are toy trains that run on a wooden track system with grooves to guide the wheels of the rolling stock. While the trains, tracks and scenery accessories are made mainly of wood, the engines and cars connect to each other usin ...

, make products that are compatible with BRIO. BRIO also sells BRIO-Mech construction kits. Long, thin wooden slats with evenly spaced holes are connected together with various fasteners made of colorful plastic. Young children can build sturdy and elaborate constructions. BRIO also sold ''

Theodore Tugboat ''Theodore Tugboat'' is a Canadian children's television series about a tugboat named Theodore who lives in the Big Harbour with all of his friends. The show originated (and is set) in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada as a co-production between th ...

'' toys. Released were the tugboats, the Dispatcher, Benjamin Bridge, Chester the Container Ship, and Barrington and Bonavista barges. These toys were discontinued in 2000, a year before the show was cancelled. During the 1960s BRIO manufactured

dollhouses A dollhouse or doll's house is a toy home made in miniature. Since the early 20th century dollhouses have primarily been the domain of children, but their collection and crafting is also a hobby for many adults. English-speakers in North America ...

and dollhouse furniture. Some of this furniture is highly sought after by collectors as it comprises miniature replicas of items by Danish designer

Arne Jacobsen Arne Emil Jacobsen, Hon. FAIA () 11 February 1902 – 24 March 1971) was a Danish architect and furniture designer. He is remembered for his contribution to architectural functionalism and for the worldwide success he enjoyed with simple we ...

. Pieces include the 'egg' chair, the 'series 7' chair, and the 'swan' couch. Additionally, the Alga subsidiary was one of five companies who at one time produced the physical skill game ''

Crossbows and Catapults ''Crossbows and Catapults'', also known as ''Battlegrounds'', is a game of physical skill first released in 1983. It has since been published by several different game publishers including Lakeside, Alga (Brio), Base Toys, Tomy and currently Moos ...

''.

Recent company history

Plantoys of Thailand had a joint venture with BRIO in 2001-2002, being present in the Brio catalogs of the time. In 2004, the Swedish

investment company An investment company is a financial institution principally engaged in holding, managing and investing securities. These companies in the United States are regulated by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and must be registered under t ...

Proventus Proventus is a privately held Swedish investment company founded in 1980 by Robert Weil. It was listed on the Stockholm Stock Exchange from 1982 until 1995. Proventus currently holds shares in companies such as BRIO AB,Guangdong Province Guangdong (, ), alternatively romanized as Canton or Kwangtung, is a coastal province in South China on the north shore of the South China Sea. The capital of the province is Guangzhou. With a population of 126.01 million (as of 2020) ...

, China. The "Financial Statement January - December 2008" presented on February 17, 2009 speaks of financial problems concerning the company's liquidity. On the 11th of March 2009 the company stated "BRIO financially reconstructed – shareholders’ equity strengthened by more than SEK 300 million". BRIO was acquired by the Ravensburger Group on January 8, 2015.

References

External links

BRIO corporate homepage
– ''links to BRIO web sites in several countries and languages'' * A
www.lekoseum.se
you will find the toy museum "Lekoseum" in Osby until 2014 known as "BRIO Lekoseum".

– ''links to other companies that make wooden trains that work with BRIO'' *

at the FundingUniverse website with information on the American market entry. {{DEFAULTSORT:Brio Toy train manufacturers Manufacturing companies of Sweden Toy companies of Sweden Manufacturing companies established in 1884 Wooden toys Purveyors to the Court of Sweden Swedish companies established in 1884 Companies based in Malmö