In 1866, founder Richard Baxendale started Baxendale & Sons (Baxi) based in Preston, Lancashire. Baxi quickly became responsible for many of the key engineering breakthroughs which have revolutionised the boiler market.
In 1898, at the age of 73, Richard retired and handed the business onto his two sons, George, and Thomas. However, by the outbreak of World War 1, all three had passed away and Baxi was passed to George's two sons, Richard, and John.
One day, John Baxendale saw his maid struggling to clean out ashes from the fireplace with an ash spoon, that inspired him to design a simpler grate that would be easy to clean and maintain. The grate he created meant the burning could be regulated with a controlled draught to keep the fire burning continuously and efficiently.
By 1955, Baxi became the household name for boilers and on their 100th anniversary in 1966 they launched their Bermuda gas-fire back boiler described as a conventional living room gas fire, with a back boiler small enough to fit the average home, yet with an output sufficient to heat several radiators. The boiler took the market by storm, and quickly became their most-famous boiler, so much so that the workforce grew from 55 in 1949 to more than 700 in 1970.
In the 1980’s Baxi sold the ownership of the company to its workforce, which made the UK’s largest employee partnership of its kind. Taking the company into employee trusted ownership was designed to enable employees to share in wealth creation, participation, and fulfillment from working in the company to fellow owners.
In 1999, Baxi acquired the heating division of Blue Circle and Ocean Idroclima. The synergy between experience and technology gave birth to the Baxi Luna – a range of wall-hung boilers. The following year Baxi introduced the first high-efficiency combination heating and domestic hot water boilers to North America.
In 2010, Baxi merged with De Dietrich and Remeha to form BRD Thermea group, making them a world-leading manufacturer and distributor of sustainable, smart climate and sanitary hot water solutions and services.
The introduction of the EcoBlue range in 2015 was a landmark in production innovation, the range of wall-hung boilers were designed based on feedback from installers and end-users across the country.
Baxi’s aim is to deliver the best value through reliability, energy-efficient products, and high-quality service and technical support, while promoting environmental, social, and economic sustainability.
With years of experience and a wealth of knowledge in the heating and boiler industry, Central Heating New Zealand began importing the Baxi boilers in 2008 and love the robustness, simplicity, reliability, and innovative products which is a favourite in the New Zealand heating market. Baxi stands by their quality, reliability, and energy-efficient products and offers warranties to protect you and your products. Check out what warranty your Baxi product has here.
