Our History
1993
In 1993, over a meal in Cologne, two friends with a passion for design detail raised their glasses with excited anticipation. A factory full of crafted quality benches had become available and both Borge Leth and Roy Catchpole were excited at the prospect of starting out on their own in the world of garden furniture. It was in these early days that they gained the financial support of the Pepera family, who remained 100% shareholders until 2010.
1994
Just a few months after that meal, at the beginning of 1994, was when Alexander Rose was officially born. We were named after the famous rose ‘Rosa Alexander’ which had won an RHS Award of Barden Merit that same year. With their love of the outdoors and their desire to enhance outdoor spaces, this seemed very fitting.
1996
We operated from a modest office space in Crawley initially, which is in West Sussex. We exhibited our first collection of Iroko hardwood at Glee, a leading trade show, in that September and we were blown away and very humbled with how successful it is.
1997
In ‘97, we made a gigantic chair made from Iroko hardwood, which weighed in at 1.7 tonnes! We hoped this would attract people’s attention at trade shows and it certainly did! Our infamous big chair is still standing at our HQ in Burgess Hill and for us, it symbolises our early ambition, and our strides to success ever since.
1998
As the ‘90’s came to an end, we added what are now considered as ‘design classics’ to our range. We also pioneered the first curved back slatted bench. We wanted this to be visually pleasing, of course, but with a big emphasis ultimately on comfort. We knew we were onto something good, as this design feature is now a staple across garden furniture worldwide!
1999
In ‘99 we were awarded ‘Best new product’ for our Millennium Bench. This same year, Borge Leth, our Managing Director also designed a now staple in the industry – a swing seat with a ‘H’ shaped frame rather than ‘A’.
2000
In 2000, we launched the Avant and Ashworth Designer collections, by Jesper Moller Hansen. This was a brave move for us, as we diversified away from our humble wooden bench beginnings and started working with new materials, such as stainless steel and teak.
2002
In 2002, we not only moved to larger premises, we also launched 50 new products! One of these was the ‘Mum’ and ‘Dad’ benches, which proved to be one of our most divisive’ products.
2005
Throughout the mid noughties we launched several ‘world-firsts’ in the garden furniture industry, such as our range made entirely from cork rubber and Stainless Steel – the Reflection set. During this time there had been huge shifts in the market and more and more people were keen to create the ‘indoor/outdoor’ look, so we launched a range of deep-seat outdoor living sets – The ocean range. The collection was manufactured in our new factory in Cebu, the Philippines.
2009
2010
In 2010, the Pepera family decided to sell their shares, and a new owner was found – the Roda Group from Bolivia, who became the major shareholder with our original founder and Managing Director, Borge Leth.
2012
2014
In 2014 we introduced ‘Design matters’ – a brand concept which continues the legacy of our company to develop exciting, appealing and functional furniture for many years to come.
2015
With an ever growing demand for low maintenance metal furniture, the Portofino range was designed – simplistic and visually pleasing, this 16 piece collection put us as a front runner within the powder coated steel furniture market.
2018
In 2018, we introduced another new material – HDPE rope with a thick rubber core. This tactile material was becoming more and more popular and we wanted to produce a high quality and extremely robust version that utilised the skills of the weavers at our factory in the Philippines. The Cordial range has since been expanded with the introduction of Cordial Luxe – a 15mm thick rope available in dark grey and light grey with contrasting grey frames.
2019
2019 saw us celebrate our 25th anniversary at Solex (the Summer outdoor living exhibition) and we invited reps and agents old and new to a celebratory dinner. The guest of honour was Roy Catchpole, our first ever Sales Representative who proudly recalled the meal he’d had with Borge some 25 years earlier in Cologne.
2020
In 2020, our Design manager Alan, along with Graphic Designer and Photographer Stefan Leth, created the Sorrento Lounge. Using premium Teak from Brazil, the result was a deep seating, luxurious modular lounge set.
The Sorrento Lounge was nominated for a prestigious International Design and Architecture Award in the Best Seating category.
2021
Borge Leth retired from Alexander Rose in 2021 and proudly handed over the reigns to Jan Vejsholt. Jan has 35 years experience in the furniture industry, heading up some of Europe’s leading contemporary indoor furniture brands and textiles. He comes with fresh design ideas with a focus on the outdoor room – speared on by Covid and working from home, it is time for the outdoor space to take over from the open plan living room.
2022
Focusing on our skill and craftmanship with timber, and the growing demand for sustainable furniture, our in-house Design Team introduce Dana to the market. Taking inspiration from mid-century Danish design, the Dana proudly showcases elite joinery and craftsmanship. It has already taken the design industry by storm and has been awarded an International Design Award.
2023
Mike Brand retired from Alexander Rose as Finance Director in December 2022. Along with this change, we worked on bringing some stylish new ranges to the table. This brings us to our latest innovation – Verona. A collection of outdoor steel furniture, designed with simple geometric lines and square hole patterns. Verona is a clean, sharp looking collection, dressed to impress!
