A Prestigious Legacy In Furniture Making
using cutting edge manufacturing techniques, top standard timbers and materials, and a level of traditional craftsmanship rarely now seen in modern furniture making.
– Barry Bevan Funnell is working as a buyer at a retail-furnishing store in Hove when he meets his future wife Pamela Funnell. Ambitious and frustrated by his work, he suggests the couple start their own business making reproduction furniture. They are confident there will always be a market for high quality hand finished pieces.
– ‘Bevan Funnell’ is formed as a Limited Company, and launches with just £50 in cash. The couple are in their early twenties and had been married for just three years.
– Barry and Pamela start out buying and selling second hand furniture, using their industry contacts to open accounts with various retailers.
– The firm moves to new premises on a factory estate in Newhaven. They start making their own range of oak and mahogany furniture, setting up a mill, machine shop, cabinet shop and polishing department. By this time they have three large vans delivering around Britain.
– The company begins exporting furniture to Germany.
– The company wins the Queens Award For Industry again, becoming the first winners to earn it twice.
– Barry and Pamela start to take a back seat in daily operations, leaving the sales trips to the next generation. Together they had already travelled around the world on business some 34 times.
– Barry and Pamela were still ‘very hands on’ with all business decisions right up to when Pamela passes away in the early 2000’s, followed by Barry in 2005. They had succeeded in growing Bevan Funnell into one of Britain’s most prestigious and highly respected furniture manufacturers.
– After Mr. Funnell died, Bevan Funnell was put into employee ownership, who subsequently sold the business to successful and privately owned company The Swann Group.
Contact Us About Making Your Furniture
To discuss how we can help, call now on
