David Brown (businessman)

David Brown is a British businessman.

Brown was born in Harrogate and named after his father, who started a company called DJB Engineering in 1972, of which David Brown Jnr was its first employee.

The company designed, built, marketed and sold what was at the time a revolutionary type of off-highway articulated earth-moving vehicle.

Brown led the company through expansion and made acquisitions or other similar companies, including Bedford trucks from General Motors. The concern was expanded over sites in the UK, including Dunstable, Luton, Peterlee and Stockton and was eventually sold to Caterpillar in the late 1990s.

It was following this that Brown began creating lifestyle companies, including restaurants, nightclubs, Harley Davison dealerships and a chain of clothes shops; one of which went to win the Department Store of the Year Award, joint with Selfridges. These were sold in around 2007.

Included in Brown's current portfolio are:

• David Brown Automotive; a bespoke car manufacturer
• Lapicida; a luxury stone company
• Foosle; a recruitment portal
• BAD Co. (Brewing And Distilling Company); a craft brewery
• various property ventures

Personal life

In his youth, Brown was a singer in a rock band.^[1]

He is also a rally driver, having won the Mintex Group N championship in a Subaru.,^[2] and taken part in the 2013 Peking to Paris Rally, driving a 1923 Rolls Royce.

References