In BODUM®’s early years, Peter Bodum was importing glassware to Denmark, when he first became aware of vacuum coffee makers. Impressed by the taste of the coffee, he set out to improve the design and make a product that was affordable for everybody, thus laying the foundations for BODUM®’s success. In the early 1950s, he produced MOCCA, BODUM®’s first vacuum coffee maker, before releasing the SANTOS vacuum coffee maker in 1958.

SANTOS was the product that placed BODUM® firmly on the international stage, where it was acclaimed for its unique design and went on to become one of the most important coffee makers worldwide throughout the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s.

In 1974, 26-year-old Jørgen Bodum took over the BODUM® company, making an immediate impact with the launch of BODUM®’s first French coffee press, the BISTRO, merging BODUM® traditions with fresh innovation. The internationally acclaimed BISTRO was selected as the most environmentally friendly coffee press by the international media, and received a number of prestigious international and Danish design awards.

A few years later, Jørgen Bodum moved BODUM®’s headquarters to Switzerland, ensuring the company was strategically placed in central Europe. With great design one of BODUM®’s founding principles, it was a natural progression for Jørgen Bodum to establish an in-house design unit, Pi-Design,in Switzerland. Since 1980, this team of designers, engineers, graphic designers and architects has been responsible for all BODUM® product designs, staying true to the tradition of functionality and quality, with a focus on innovation. In 1986, Jørgen Bodum turned his attention to the retail market by opening the first BODUM® store in London. This flagship store highlighted the variety of BODUM® products and helped to cement the company’s reputation on the international stage. A number of other shops and shop-in-shops followed around the world, including Paris, Copenhagen, Zurich, Lucerne, Tokyo, New York, Sydney, and Auckland. In 1991, BODUM® purchased Martin S. A., the original producer of the first coffee press maker, MELIOR®. The MELIOR® coffee press was first produced in the 1950s in the factory of Martin S.A.’s other business, making fine classical clarinets. It went on to become a cult object for drinking coffee in the 1960s, and this design is still present in BODUM®’s current range with the iconic CHAMBORD® coffee press.

However, while the BODUM® name is synonymous with the iconic coffee press, there’s much more to us than just coffee.

In 1991, BODUM® also reinvented tea brewing with our innovative ASSAM teapot, developed for the British Tea Council. The ASSAM tea press uses the same brewing system as the French coffee press, giving tea lovers full control over the tea-steeping process for the perfect brew.

The following year, BODUM® also introduced its collection of electrical household goods, e-BODUM®. Simple yet effective, the IBIS water kettle was the first in the collection, which now includes juicers, coffee grinders, mixers, and blenders. Today, the BODUM® range has expanded further to include other kitchen and household products, including cookware and cutlery, storage items, textiles, and other home and office products.