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It’s 2010. Philip is on a family holiday to the mountain village Nesbyen in Norway. He has just quit his job as an accountant and decided he never wants to do an annual tax return ever again. His father, Cato, has also just told the family that he is thinking of selling Novaplan. Novaplan is the company he founded with his brother in 1992. They have been working with heaters for a number of years, but what now?
Philip envisions all the heaters hanging on walls across the country. Dusty, yellowed with age, put up on freshly painted walls and placed next to the latest trends in interior design. It just doesn’t add up. If we spend so much time and energy on creating beautiful homes, shouldn’t there also be a need for elegantly designed heaters as well?
The Bryn Family knows heaters. After a number of years in the business, they have both the connections and the knowledge needed to succeed. However, Philip and Cato don’t want to sell other companies’ heaters. They want to create their own. Can this family elevate heaters from simply being a “necessary evil” to becoming a product that people actually want to display?
All of a sudden, the future is as clear as the mountain air in Nesbyen. Philip and Cato decide to go for it.
On a cold winter’s day, the heaters start to take shape. Philip can make heating beautiful, and he has a clear vision of how to do it. He imagines heaters that float, that become one with the wall. Heaters that can be moved around on the floor. Heaters with rounded corners and a bowed front. No dusty, discoloured heaters as far as the eye can see. Only black and white. Simple, yet elegant.
Mill has already launched both a glass- and a steel heater, and sales are going very well. That their heaters became popular in Norway is not much of a surprise to the Bryn family. After all, the country has stormy autumns and is mostly covered in at least a foot of snow during winter. Norwegians spend almost 90% of their time indoors and are widely known to enjoy their “hygge”. «Hygge» is a Norwegian expression that illustrates typical Norwegian culture of enjoying yourself indoors together.
If you grow up in a cold, rough climate, chances are that you’ll be able to create very efficient heaters. As it turns out, the portable heater that Philip envisioned on that cold winter’s day will be the breakthrough and start of the international Mill adventure.
Obviously the rest of the world also needs beautiful heaters, and because of limited innovation going on in heater designs on the international market, everyone wants the new designer heaters from Norway. The interest does not exactly dwindle when Mill receives the prestigious “Red Dot” design award, as well as glowing recommendations in well-known newspapers and publications internationally.
The innovative spirit is strong in the Mill company. Working tirelessly to meet the ever-growing demand for Mill heaters, the small company needed help when orders teemed in from all corners of the globe – Japan, Korea, the U.S., and the Netherlands, just to name a few. Reinforcement came with Philip’s wife, Ane. Not only fiercely dedicated to working with brands and products, she is also a master of getting results. At this point, orders are rapidly coming in from all over the world – from Japan, Korea, the U.S., the Netherlands, and another 20-something countries.
It’s all about Mill. At the family cabin in Nesbyen, conversations flow and interchange between father and son, and husband and wife. These discussions result in further innovative ideas.
Beauty is not enough, Mill products should be smart as well. The unique elegantly designed heaters are further enhanced with technically advanced and user-friendly software. Now, consumers can control their heaters via smartphone – whether on the go or in their homes having full control over house temperatures and electricity consumption. In just a few years, the Mill app became the best-liked heating control app in the Nordic countries based on Google Play and App Store customer reviews.
Now that the ambitious company wheels are successfully in motion, will the momentum dwindle? No, rest is not for the Bryn family. There’s simply too much to do, to develop and to improve – they’ll never stop. Mill’s ambition is to produce heating products where design and ease of use are separately equal important factors – aspiring to creating good customer experience and lead the heating technology market. To create smart, elegant heaters that will help people save money and the environment, and to be comfortably warm at home, drives the company ever forward. Persistent innovation and changeability is essential. Rest is not on their agenda.
