Alan Brazier, the Bromsgrove-born businessman who founded the £60 million Vax vacuum cleaning empire, has died aged 74.

Mr Brazier, who grew up on a Worcestershire farm, had often said he wanted to end his days as a "gentleman farmer".

But fate played its part in his early life and his ambition to own 1,000 acres and a dairy herd was soon eclipsed thanks to sharp eye for a gap in the market.

Mr Brazier became a tenant of a farm at Weatheroak, Worcestershire, soon after leaving school. His strong entrepreneurial spirit first surfaced when he took the decision to concentrate on the milk business.

This enabled the farm to increase the annual turnover from £3,000 to £250,000 in just eight years.

Mr Brazier's company had the first milk floats to sell non-milk products such as potatoes, sausages, pork pies, yoghurt and own-brand tea.

Eventually he was forced to sell the company, but he moved on to become a salesman at Birmingham-based Rank Xerox. However, he soon left and set up a domestic cleaning firm with a former colleague from Xerox.

The initial idea was to go into people's homes with shampoo machines and expand through word of mouth. However, the company expanded to such an extent that Mr Brazier experimented with building new machines that would provide industrial cleaning.

It was while developing these machines that the idea came to develop a domestic cleaner. The Vax machine was invented in 1977, the first domestic vacuum cleaner in the world that washed carpets that people could use in their own home.

The machine was patented, but Mr Brazier lacked the cash to develop the business.

The breakthrough came in the early 1980s after Mr Brazier took over a Telford company and its debts for £1. By 1984 it was making a profit and TV advertising led to a six-week waiting time for orders.

In three years Mr Brazier turned a one-man venture into a £60 million business. Vax vacuum cleaners are now sold all over the world and it is one of the best selling vacuum cleaner brands in the UK and Australasia. Vax Appliances Ltd's head office was established in Droitwich, Worcestershire.

Mr Brazier, a hunting and shooting enthusiast, provoked controversy when he became president of the Worcester-shire Wildlife Trust. However, he was well known for his conservation and charitable work, especially around Droitwich.

He leaves a wife, Liz, and grown-up children Emma and Ian.