Ellis Furniture, one of the UK’s leading privately owned, family business furniture manufacturers, has begun its celebrations marking its 125-year anniversary with a charity fundraiser, raising over £22,000 for a number of local and national charities.

Ellis Furniture began its life in 1891, and was the brain child of J T Ellis, manufacturing a diverse range of high quality furniture items such as fireplace surrounds, aeroplane components and television cabinets. It has gone from strength to strength and is now run by two of the fourth generation Ellis cousins, Richard Ellis and Tom Ellis, manufacturing a range of kitchens, bathrooms and contract furniture.

As part of its celebrations, Richard and Tom Ellis embarked on a 125-mile bike ride alongside 10 colleagues, starting in Oundle, Peterbrough, where both cousins attended school, back to the factory in Huddersfield.

“We have a proud history of supporting both local and national charities, and feel very strongly that although we have grown into a national brand, we still retain the family business ethos to which my grandfather would have been proud of,” says MD Richard Ellis.

“We wanted to mark our historic milestone and celebrate our achievements within manufacturing, by cycling a mile for every year we have been trading, raising money for brilliant causes along the way.”

Collectively the 12 cyclists raised £11,000 which was doubled by the company to £22,000. The charities supported included £14,400 for the MS Society, £3500 for Mencap, and the remainder to the Jerry Green Dog Rescue, Kirkwood Hospice, and Cancer Research.