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Aug 09, 2023

Tony Brown, head of Bisley office equipment whose steel cabinets were hailed as design classics

Brown insisted on manufacturing in the UK, accepted lower margins in hard

Brown insisted on manufacturing in the UK, accepted lower margins in hard times rather than redundancies, and supported local rugby

Tony Brown, who has died aged 86, was the entrepreneur behind the success of Bisley Furniture, the leading UK manufacturer in its sector; he was also a major benefactor of Welsh rugby.

Employing 500 people at Newport, South Wales, Bisley sells office furniture and equipment to more than 50 countries, winning two Queen's Awards for Exports and boasting customers from Google to the French cosmetics giant L’Oréal. Its MultiDrawer steel cabinet – introduced in 1951 and inspired by the letter trays of the era – became a classic of office design and has sold millions around the world.

Document storage systems and stylish front-office furniture followed; during the pandemic, the company launched a new collection designed for working from home. In 2022, after 52 years as Bisley's majority owner, Brown established an Employee Ownership Trust which gifted 51 per cent of the company to its workforce.

Anthony Charles Brown was born in Surrey on April 2 1937, the first of five children of Freddy Brown and his wife Agnes (known as Nancy), née Urwin.

Freddy was a panel-beater who founded a garage business at Woking in 1931, moving to Bisley 10 years later and becoming a wartime manufacturer of jerry cans and steel containers for supply drops by parachute. He reverted to car repair after the Second World War, but won a contract to make steel wastepaper baskets for a London office-supply firm.

After leaving school Tony Brown did National Service in the Army, including a posting to Korea. He loved Army life and rose to sergeant, but left to embark on accountancy training, which he abandoned after three years.

Prone to self-deprecation, Brown felt his career was going nowhere until his father offered him a job in 1960. Since then, he told an interviewer: "I’ve been very fortunate."

The business then employed just 28 people. In 1963 it stopped repairing vehicles to concentrate on making furniture and in 1970 – with the backing of the private equity pioneer ICFC (later 3i) and support from his wife, who was a member of the wealthy Vestey dynasty – Tony bought out his father.

Bisley acquired land at Newport for a second factory in 1988 and expanded there in 2010 prior to selling the original Surrey site for housing. A passionate ambassador for British manufacturing and an enthusiast for new technology, Brown was adamant he would never shift production to low-cost overseas locations; he accepted lower margins in tough times rather than make redundancies. He stepped back from day-to-day management, but remained chairman and a regular shopfloor presence until his death.

In 1997, Brown became a vice-president of Newport rugby football club – hoping, he said, "to put a bit of self-belief back" into the town – and was subsequently chief executive and major shareholder, with Bisley as its sponsor. The club's fortunes rose, winning the WRU Challenge Cup in 2001, and crowd numbers soared.

But a difficult phase ensued when rugby in the principality was reorganised into "regional" teams under the ownership of the Welsh RFU. Merger with the Ebbw Vale club in 2003 and a name-change to "Gwent Dragons" left fans disgruntled and prompted the withdrawal of Brown's support. He returned after the name became "Newport Gwent Dragons" – finally rebranded last year as Dragons RFC. The function room at the club's Rodney Parade ground in Newport is now the Tony Brown Suite.

Tony Brown was appointed OBE in 1993. He married first, in 1961, Rosamund, daughter of Sir Derek Vestey, 2nd Bt, and great-grand-daughter of Edmund Vestey who co-founded the family's meat-supply empire. Divorced in 1980, Tony married secondly his former secretary Marilyn Stevens, who died in 2013. He is survived by his son and daughter from the first marriage.

Tony Brown, born April 2 1937, died April 4 2023