Our company was founded in 1953 by an industrious Italian national, Vittorino Meneghelli who was seeking new challenges in South Africa to invest his personal knowledge in the brush trade gained from a family business and history spanning several decades. Although being a qualified accountant, the roots from being exposed so long to the family brush trade probably influenced his decision to attempt doing the same in his new surroundings and country.

He chose the name Academy Brushware for his newly founded business and used as logo and trademark the well known "LION" with wings presiding as guard over the Doges palace next to the world famous St Mark's cathedral in Venice, Italy.

From humble beginnings and with a staff of a few people the business started growing and the production now needed to be marketed and administered in a professional manner.

As the business became established and grew, more people were employed in handling the administrative, production and despatching responsibilities. Paint brush production became the main force of the business and an expansion program entailed the acquisition of brush-filling machines to satisfy the needs of moving into the domestic broom and affiliated brush territory. The challenges were ongoing and dictated that paint rollers be added to the existing range, now putting the company in a position to offer the complete range of brushware and allied products to the domestic market.

This was in the mid 1960's, a mere 10 years after starting up. By this time the business had developed into a bustling organisation and dominated a large share of the domestic market, It was also a founder member of the local Brushmakers Association. A substantial range of it's products are manufactured under SABS laid-down specifications as determined and drawn up by the Association. Newly designed products are continually introduced on a regular on-going basis and the already substantial range on offer continuously expands. During the mid 1970's the Company was considered to rank amongst the top two brushmaking company's in the country.

Always looking for new challenges,the Company qualified and became an accredited user of the SABS √ ISO 9001 Quality Standards business concept but after a few years eventually realized that the international AJA-UKAS ISO Standards held more promise for exposure to the global markets. It applied and won accreditation as a user on this quality system in February 2003.

The company is currently recognized as the top ranking brushmaking establishment in the Republic of South Africa. Top Companies Publishing and Events recognized Academy Brushware as one of the Top 300 Performers of the year in business and industry for 2004/2005.

The Company produces a range of products recognized for it's high quality over many years of manufacture. Its dedication to provide an excellent service and outstanding customer relations in the supply of superior brushware places it at the forefront of this industry. This is being achieved by applying the most advanced production methods in conjunction with modern technology, state of the art machinery and a workforce dedicated in their purpose to deliver the best.

On the human resource side the Company currently boasts five directors on it's board , a well trained management structure, administrative personnel and technical personnel.

The company produces and distributes a complete range of painting utensils and tools, eg. from the traditional flat type paint brush, blockbrushes, sash tools, lining fitches, etc. to a very substantial paint roller range offering a wide choice of fabric application for various purposes. We have recently introduced the Hygiene range which is colour coded brushware manufactured to HACCUP specifications. The HACCUP system can be defined as the hazard analysis and critical control point system that identifies, evaluates and controls hazards significantly for food safety.

In addition we also manufacture a wide range of brooms, from domestic use to industrial purposes, scrubs, shoe, banister and affiliated domestic brushes, like bottle brushes and sanitary brushes, mops, rakes and stepladders with a range so very diverse, it satisfies all the needs and demands of all end-users in the marketplace.

We also boast an industrial division where very exact and specific brushes are produced to satisfy the needs of the industry as a whole. These vary between road sweepers, rotary brushes, wire-twisted brushes and car washing applicators. These are either machine made, wire drawn or of manual manufacture. No matter what the demands of the customer are, we strive to satisfy.

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