Tribute: Death of Furniture Factors founder Barry Bruce

Barry was a well know face around the city as well as at the forefront of his firm’s advertising campaigns.

Barry was born in 1944 and sadly passed away last Monday.

He started his working career at the Co-op in 1959 before moving to Harrison Gibsons.

When the name changed to Eyres he rose through the company’s ranks, making assistant manager and eventually being given the role of manager for a chain of discount warehouses rolled out by Eyres under the name of Furniture Factors.

After three successful years managing Furniture Factors he was asked to join the main board of directors – the youngest person ever to attain board status.

In early 1985 the complete Eyre group (and five branches of Furniture Factors) was broken up and all the properties sold as separate entities.

One had a large warehouse adjacent to it which Barry took on and converted to all retail, opening in March 1985.

This grew with the addition of extra warehouse buildings in to what Furniture Factors is today.

Furniture Factors has been established for over 35 years and Barry was a much loved, unique character who was loved by his staff, colleagues and customers alike.

Many people will know Furniture Factors as the white elephant building on Arkwright Road.

Barry was also a keen sportsman and sponsored many different Doncaster teams

throughout Doncaster including cricket and rugby.

On a personal note, his real passion was horse racing, becoming a winning owner many times over a period of more than three decades.

But one thing that came before any of this was his family, being a proud father of son and daughter Andrew and Amanda and Grandad to Danielle, Connor, Laura and Liam.