In early 1996, Jim Drew sat in a pancake restaurant in Amsterdam with some friends and discovered a small toothbrush in a vending machine that you chewed.
A strange looking object which all his friends tried and thought 'what a great idea'!
He took the brush with him on his travels to Australia then six months later returned to England thinking that he would definitely like to do something with this new idea.
He contacted what was then the manufacturer and with investment negotiated the rights to sell the brush worldwide.
The brush had no name as such, so he stood in his office, held the brush in his hand, looked at it for a while and said to himself "let's call it... Fuzzy Brush" - the first thing that came into his head.
Then he sat down with a pencil and drew what is now the Fuzzy Brush logo and character - all in the space of two minutes!
From 1997-1999 every conceivable kind of packaging was tried... brushes in bags, brushes in blister packs, brushes in boxes, brushes in capsules, brushes in sachets... brushes in capsules in bags in boxes!
Every kind of sales method was tried, every avenue was explored... in England, America, Canada, Germany, Switzerland, France, Greece, Spain - the list was endless, the enquiries were endless and although everyone thought it was a great idea, nobody had the time to develop Fuzzy Brush on a large scale.
So Jim decided to go back to the beginning and started developing the humble vending machine in London, England and later in Florida, America.
Fuzzy Brush Ltd was formed and incorporated in March 1999 and the next two and a half years were spent perfecting every aspect of vending possible.
Firstly, by placing vending machines in dentists and then further developing the vending machine itself, the capsules, the inserts, the descriptions, the fixtures & fittings... every last detail, until eventually Fuzzy Brushes began to sell... and sell they did.
So, in August 2001 with close friends Thom Lebeau and Graham Barber (now business partners) the decision was taken to licence Fuzzy Brushes with what was already a highly successful formula and in most aspects a seventh or eighth generation product.
Now with more than 12 million brushes sold throughout the world and with an expansion rate that defies belief, the UK based Fuzzy Brush factories are geared toward producing almost two and a half million brushes a month by the middle of 2005.
At the beginning of December 2004 a Fuzzy Brush vending machine was re-placed in to the restaurant where Jim Drew first discovered them. It's at Pancake Corner (overlooking the Leidseplein) if you'd like to visit!
