Zeev closed his Kings Road showroom in 1973, and moved his business to Kean Street in Covent Garden, where he concentrated on his own designs as well as running a very successful contract business supplying architects and interior design groups. But his heart has always been in retail. When the warehouse next door came up for sale last year, he knew he had to buy it. "We felt it was the chance of a lifetime - it was now or never," he says.

Although Zeev will be selling some of his own designs in the new store, including the glass table he designed in the mid sixties, and which David Hockney immortalised in an oil painting that hangs in the Royal Opera House, he sees the future of the ARAM brand in retailing new and top quality products from many sources. He's as much a curator as a designer. Daniel's business career and Ruth's background as a landscape architect and the creative force behind the successful Ruth Aram Shop in Hampstead, compliment Zeev's uncompromising and passionate eye for innovative design. The multi-talented family even includes an architect - Ruth's husband, David Walker, of Walker & Martin who has designed the building and stripped it back to a raw, industrial space. Between them, the Arams have all the essential ingredients of business sense, commercial know how, and creative flair to take the family business into the twenty-first century where it has always belonged.

Representing a huge expansion from the original furniture design showroom opened almost forty years ago by Zeev Aram, the new store is a real family business. Zeev is joined in the venture by his son Daniel and by his daughter, Ruth, who has been established since 1995 in Hampstead with her Ruth Aram Shop, where she has brought her own blend of modern furniture classics and eclectic accessories to a loyal following. The ARAM team is complemented by General Manager, Jeff Heading, and by Store Manager, Marion Rowles.

ARAM is a massive five-storey converted fruit and vegetable warehouse filled with London's best choice of modern furniture and lighting. "It's very exciting to be able to give people a real choice when making up their minds on buying a piece of modern furniture," says Ruth. Take sofas: The store will show over twenty different designs ranging from Bauhaus classics to the latest offerings from Milan. The store will feature the work of established and new designers from Alvar Aalto and Harry Bertoia through Jasper Morrison and Ron Arad to the latest graduates. Manufacturers will include Artek, Knoll, Vitra, Flexform, Cassina, Porro, and Moroso to name but a few.

ARAM is a destination store. As well as offering an unsurpassed range of furniture, lighting and accessories, an entire floor has been set aside to show experimental or new work by up and coming designers continuing the process that Zeev has championed for over thirty years.