Furniture king who never had a bad day

DENNIS Bakos, founder of Bakos Brothers, has died in Johannesburg at the age of 72.

The second-eldest of five brothers, he started as a delivery driver for Geen & Richards furniture retailers in Johannesburg before opening his own chain of furniture stores.

He handed it over to his brothers and became, for a while, the largest private developer in Johannesburg. He created the first cluster development and, predicting in the late ’80s that security would soon be an issue, the first gated community.

He was born in Bethal in the then-Transvaal on December 8 1942, a fifth-generation South African whose family arrived from Lebanon during the gold rush and made a living selling AN ETERNAL OPTIMIST: Dennis Bakos made people feel special odds and ends to the miners.

He left school in Standard 8 to support the family when his father became ill. At Geen & Richards he moved up from driving trucks to selling — and found his calling.

In 1971, he spotted a gap in the market for high-end furniture and started Bakos Brothers in Rissik Street. More branches followed, including one in Eastgate and Sandton.

He sensed that Nelspruit was about to take off and opened a furniture store there. At the back of the shop he sold electrical goods and watches. He travelled often to Hong Kong and Japan, where he sourced his stock.

He got wind that an old church in the middle of Nelspruit was going to be sold. He bought it, built another shop on the site and quickly attracted other retailers to him. This became his first shopping centre, Nelcity. It did so well that he bought an adjacent stand and built a second phase, which inadvertently provided the impetus for him to begin a new busi- ness venture developer.

He bought some council-owned land in the upmarket suburb of Sandhurst and built the first cluster development in Johannesburg and the first gated community.

There were 47 units and his price was so high everyone told him he was crazy. His timing was perfect and they were snapped up. Hotel and casino magnate Sol Kerzner bought a stand, which he sold when he left the country.

Bakos did so well out of this venture that he bought a large property on Rivonia Road, Inanda, which became his first commercial development. He built more cluster developments; Bakos Brothers Decorating Centre of South Africa, which became a landmark in Rosebank; and an office park.

He was about to complete an-

as a

property other shopping centre in Nelspruit when he was diagnosed with aggressive lung cancer in May.

A man who loved working, even he had to admit he was too sick.

“You know something is wrong with me if I don’t feel like going to work,” he told his son.

Bakos was an eternal optimist who never had a bad day. He was never depressed and never upset about a bad deal. His rule when something went against him was to forget it and move on.

He was an instinctive salesman and first-class negotiator. He had the knack of making whoever he was talking to feel special and at ease, like the most important person in the room. He’d greet him like a long-lost brother and walk away with the deal of a lifetime.

He is survived by his wife, Allison, and three children. — Chris Barron