A BUSINESSMAN whose family has been selling furniture since 1920 has re-opened a store where it all began.

Iain Race worked in the family business Race for Furniture for most of his life until the company went into administration last year.

But now he is bringing his knowledge to his new venture Holmes and Race on Borough Road, in Middlesbrough, where his grandfather Ernest Oswald Race started trading in 1920.

He said: “There’s a long history of being here and running the business and we thought this would be the ideal place to start again. We hope to be able to offer a personal service that no other furniture business offers.

“One of the partners in the new business is Chris Holmes, who runs a haulage firm, so if a customer wants something delivering to Devon we will do it, if they want us to travel up to Edinburgh we will.

“Last year was really difficult when the business went into administration so we have gone back to our roots and started again.”

Mr Race and his partner, Gill Wilson, have appointed Andy Loughran as the manager of store and are developing a website to enable them to carry out online sales.

Mr Race added: “Since we opened on Good Friday customers have been coming in and wishing us well and saying it’s good to have a furniture store back in the same shop.”