The Raspberry Pi Foundation announced today morning that it has reached an important milestone by shipping over a million Raspberry Pi units manufactured at the Sony’s factory in Pencoed, Wales.
The Foundation, which was established in 2011 with a humble mission of developing cheap Linux computers for education, started mass producing the Raspberry Pi through factories in China. The device was launched in the UK in February 2012 and production of the units went on in China till September 2012 – evidently because of cheaper production costs.
In September 2012 it was decided that production of Raspberry Pi computers will cease in China based factories and will commence at a Welsh factory owned by Sony. “Gradually, both of our manufacturing partners, RS Components and Premier Farnell, have reshored all the production of Raspberry Pis to that factory, and for the last few months, all the Pis you buy have been made in the UK”, notes Liz Upton in a blog post.
According to Upton, over a million Raspberry Pi computers have been made at the Welsh factory and the Foundation has managed to sell over 1.75 million units of the credit card sized computer. The millionth unit will be placed in a gold-plated case “and we’ll be displaying it proudly here at Pi Towers.”
The Pencoed factory, which has been handling the production since September 2012, has received many awards for innovative processes and minimizing environmental impact. Some of the awards include Best Factory award, Best Electronics Factory, and Best Factory for Innovation.
