Like I said in the intro, we're going all the way back -- to thirty years ago. We will start in 1991. This was the year that Nimbus made their triumph over the Cleansweeps.

This is because they both released a broomstick in this same year. Cleansweep, who had just released the Cleansweep 6 the year before, knew it was a big hit. People were buying their brooms so fast, and they were running out of stock. That year, they sold over 50,000 brooms worldwide for 300 galleons.

Now, Nimbus were working on a new company they prepared to release a couple years later. It was called HarmonyFlights, and they were already working on the first broom in the series. It was called the Firebolt, and was using indivdually selected birch twigs, Fleetwoods High Finish Polish, complete with it's own registation number. Read more about it in Chapter 5.

Anyway flushed with their success, Cleansweep decided to make a broomstick the very next year, and after not selling a single broom for four years, Nimbus had the same idea.

Nimbus released their product in August. This was a very smart play on their behalf, as this was peak time. All the people starting school (, expect for Kurznidge Academy of Proper Witches who start school in February,) would be out getting their stationary, books, new robes, refills of potion ingredients. Everybody who would walk past the shops would see the broom. We found and interview from the time that it was happening. Someone called Tom who worked at a bar at one of the streets called Diagon Alley in London, England was asked to be interviewed.

'I was just helping out at The Leaky Cauldron, y'know, that's where I work, I'm the landlord, see? So yeah, and then I see a bunch of kids, just crowding around this shop y'know? So I go and see what them kids are looking at. And there they was, pressing their noses against Quality Quidditch Supplies. I don't see no reason why they are, until I see the most amazing broom in front of me eyes. It's all nice and shiny, with this nice handel, quite slim too, with a bit of roughness to make it firm, not too firm though, it's got bit of bouncyiness, it that word? Them twigs at the back are fine too, you usually see them bit twisted, I wonder if it has a bit of springiness. . .'

He carried on saying things of the brooms until he was asked for the interview to end.

After that, Cleansweep released Cleansweep 7. This happened in October, which was trickier to market now that people were at school. However, in New Zealand, they did get some people buying their products, as they had not started school yet and had just finished, and wanted to go out shopping. (This is because most of them go to Kurznidge School for Proper Witches or else Partnogs School of Magical Sorcery.) However, they had a definite drop in numbers. Not nearly as much people had bought their Cleansweeps 7s as they had with the Cleansweep 6s. It didn't help that people were now saying that their Cleansweeps 6s were developing a bit of a drag on the tail twigs.

After the year, Nimbus had sold over a thousand more broomsticks than Cleansweep, and from that moment on, they became rivals determined to beat each other in marketing.