By Patrick Avenell

SYDNEY, NSW: The Breville Group used its annual conference in Sydney last week to honour a 45-year veteran of the small appliances industry. Graeme Thompson retired from the iconic Australian home appliance brand after nearly half-century of service.

Thompson’s last role at Breville was as a Melbourne sales representative. When he started his long and successful career at Breville, Sir Robert Menzies was the Prime Minister, the first American combat troops had just landed in Vietnam and The Sound of Music was top of the box office.

In addition to a Gold Watch for Thompson, Breville also handed out its sales awards at this conference. The State of the Year Award, which is amusingly called the ‘Golden Sandwich Press’ was won by Victoria. Talking about this victory is State manager Gary Lawrence.

“We’re an extremely committed group of people and it’s great that we are able to come
together and celebrate our achievements as a company,” he said.

Daniel Pritchard, also from the Victorian sales team, was named Sales Representative of the Year.