Franco Cozzo’s daughters reopen Brunswick showroom and revive a Melbourne retail icon

The daughters of late furniture retailer Franco Cozzo have reopened his Brunswick showroom, seeking to continue a family business that became part of Melbourne’s cultural identity. The revival preserves his distinctive furniture style and television legacy while testing whether the brand can attract new customers.

The Brunswick furniture showroom established by Franco Cozzo has reopened after a five-year hiatus, with several of his daughters taking over the family business. The weekend reopening came three years after Cozzo died aged 88 and featured Italian-themed decorations, complimentary cannoli and a tribute to the retailer inside the store.

Cozzo opened his first showroom in North Melbourne in 1959 after working as a door-to-door electrical appliance salesman. He later expanded to a three-storey outlet in Footscray, which closed in 2018 and has since become a craft brewery. The Brunswick shop, which opened on Sydney Road in the mid-1980s, operated for about four decades before its closure.

His profile grew through commercial television advertisements in the 1980s and 1990s. Known for his animated delivery, distinctive dialect, “Megalo!” catchphrase and pronunciation of Footscray, Cozzo became an unusually prominent Italian-Australian presence on television at a time when the medium was described as highly Anglocentric.

Filmmaker Madeleine Martiniello, director of the 2021 documentary Palazzo di Cozzo, told ABC News that Cozzo’s importance extended beyond his business career. His television appearances, including a cameo on The Don Lane Show, a parody on the ABC youth program Recovery and later use in electronic dance music, helped make him a figure in Melbourne’s cultural fabric, she said.

Cozzo’s daughter Alessia said the decision to reopen followed a promise the family made after her father worried that the next generation would not continue the business. She said the family wanted to carry on his legacy and described the reopening as a long process. A room at the front of the shop has been dedicated to Cozzo, displaying his furniture and a wall tribute.

Martiniello said customers interested in the store’s Sicilian baroque-style furniture range from older Italian migrants to people drawn to its post-modern appeal. She said the reopening would show how the furniture and the shop’s role as a local landmark evolve, while Alessia said demand for the distinctive style remained strong.