By Eleanor Momberg
Sydney Ellerine, the co-founder of the Ellerine furniture group, died at the age of 73 on Friday.
Galit Ellerine, his daughter-in-law, said on Saturday Ellerine had died following a two-week battle with septicaemia after undergoing stomach surgery.
Ellerine and his brother, Eric, established the popular furniture and appliance chain in 1950, listing their company on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange in 1969.
From small beginnings they built their company to 265 Ellerine stores as part of the more than 1 100 stores countrywide owned by the Ellerines Group,
The group, which merged with Relyant Retail Limited Group in 2005, comprised Ellerines, Town Talk and FurnCity, which catered for the lower- to middle-income markets, Bears, Lubners, Geen and Richards, Dial-a-Bed, Mattress Factory, and Furniture City, which caters for the middle- to upper-income group and Wetherleys, Osiers and Roodefurn Manufacturing directed at the upper end of the market.
The brothers retired from Ellerines Holdings, on August 31, 2000, five years before the merger with Relyant.
Last year Ellerine Holdings ceased to be listed as a separate entity, disappearing from the JSE 37 years after it first went public.
The company had been bought by the African Bank for a reported R9,85-million.
Sydney Ellerine is survived by his brother, Eric, his four children, Linda, Tammy, Bradley and Kevin, and seven grandchildren.
He will be buried during a service at the West Park cemetery in Johannesburg at 1.15pm on Sunday.