OUR BISLEY STORY
Life may be unpredictable, but you can always count on Bisley.
For over ninety years we’ve quietly been creating innovative products that meet the evolving needs of our furniture world. From humble beginnings as a one-man car repair business in 1931 to our latest home and office furniture, we’ve always been unashamedly passionate about storage – it’s at the heart of everything we do.
Product Pioneers
Today, we combine our spirit of innovation and decades of experience to bring you a range of designs that are perfect to provide the right solution for all of your storage needs.
We are proud of our heritage and independence, while our drive and boundless energy means that we can produce exciting products that suit today’s modern ways of working. While the world may evolve, our passion for design and care for our people never changes.
British Made
We’re a British born business that values its rich heritage, making our products right here in the UK. All of our furniture is designed and manufactured in our South Wales Bisley factory, made to order and with care by our experienced hands.
Unmistakeable Quality
Precision engineered and built to last, your Bisley furniture will keep on working as hard as the first day you got it. And whether you’re on the go, limited in space or have budget to spare, our furniture will help you work more productively, so you can thrive anywhere.
Bisley – helping you work better, anywhere.
Our Heritage
1930s & 40s
Freddy Brown, a panel beater working with luxury cars, starts his own business, F C Brown, repairing cars in a garage in Woking, Surrey.
We move to a facility in Bisley, Surrey undertaking wartime defence contracts. We design and manufacture the first containers to be dropped by parachute, widely used by airborne forces throughout the war. For this work, we receive several commendations from the Ministry of Defence
At the end of the war, Bisley resumes car repairs, but now has a manufacturing capability for which there’s no demand…
…So, we create our first office product – the wastepaper bin!
1950s & 60s
Designed by Freddy and inspired by letter trays, our design icon the MultiDrawer is born. Arguably our best known and most loved product, it has been helping people organise their stationery, papers, coin collections and more, ever since. More than two million of the compact cabinets have been sold across the world, cementing its status as a classic – and with many of the very first models still in use today.
At the age of 67, Freddy Brown decides to retire and puts the business up for sale. His son, Tony Brown decides to buy the company.
1970s & 80s
As workplaces continued to evolve, there was a demand for more efficient information retrieval and paper storage systems – meaning the introduction of filing and cabinet units. Bisley’s first range of British standard size filing cabinets were born and they were designed with fingertip control of the drawers, a silken glide on ball bearings, and a locking device that kept other drawers in place to prevent the unit from toppling over. The filing cabinet also included a Bisley logo and a brightly coloured oblong label holder that was attached to each drawer.
To meet expanding demand, we purchase a 17 acre-site in Newport, South Wales.
Measuring 250,000 square feet, the move created 500 new jobs in an area of high unemployment. The site in Newport manufactured and stored the larger units, although the site in Surrey was the location where all products were made until manufacturing moved to Newport in 1989.
1990s
Bisley launches the under desk Pedestal.
These years also marked the opening of our first subsidiary in the Netherlands, followed shortly thereafter by Germany. Today, Bisley proudly operates six subsidiaries across France, Germany, the Netherlands, Ireland, Dubai, and North America.
We are granted a prestigious Queen’s award for Export Achievement. The prestigious award was only granted to those who demonstrated a consistent record of export success over three years
The award was officially presented in the Bisley showroom on July 11th, 1992 by the Lord Lieutenant of Surrey, Mr Richard Thornton on behalf of Her Majesty the Queen.
Tony Brown is honoured with an OBE for his outstanding contribution to the British Steel Industry.
Bisley is granted a second Queen’s Award for Export Achievement.
2000s
In the 2000s, we really focused on expanding the product offering. Major product lines such as LateralFile, SystemFile, Eurotambour, Towers, Be, Glide, Personal Filer and Note pedestals were launched.
We expand across the globe with businesses in France, Germany and Ireland by 2009.
In 2013, Bisley expands into North America, and now has a presence in eight countries across three continents.
2010s
We are awarded the Manufacturing Guild Mark by the Furniture Makers’ Company.
Tony Brown receives a Lifetime Achievement award from The Furniture Makers’ Company.
In the same year, Bisley invests in an additional 80,000 square feet of factory space in Wales. As a result, we now have the capability to create bespoke wooden products in the same place for the first time!
The Furniture Makers’ Company awards Bisley’s MultiDrawer with the prestigious Design Guild Mark, recognising its enduring appeal and iconic status, sixty years on.
We introduce a new personal storage unit with the Caddy, and also Bridge, the modern credenza that brings together storage, stowage and room division.
Designed in association with Paul Kelley, we launch BOB, our first all-wood modular storage and display system.
In the same year, BOB by Bisley is awarded the Design Guild Mark from The Furniture makers’ Company and wins the Mixology 2019 ‘Storage Product of the Year’ and is recognised with ‘Best of Best’ in the Furniture Category at the Iconic Awards.
2018- Present
The Bisley Shop was launched in the UK, allowing customers to shop a selection of storage, seating, desking, and accessories.
Several home-inspired ranges have since launched on the website, demonstrating the focus of the Bisley shop to supply furniture for the home as well as the office.
Bisley is working with John Lewis (listing Bisley products in the living and dining and home office categories online since September 2022) and Next (listing Bisley home and office products online since August 2024). The partnership with John Lewis extends to both physical stores and online platforms, which means the Bisley brand can be found in the John Lewis flagship store in Oxford street.
More recently, the Bisley Shop brand has expanded to the Netherlands and Ireland.
We launch BeSmart™—a comprehensive smart storage service designed to meet the growing demand for intelligent, data-driven storage and locker solutions. This new division brings together expert consultancy, cutting-edge smart locker technology, and ongoing support, helping businesses transform their storage infrastructure into a dynamic, future-ready asset.