Sofa.com

Sofa.com is a UK-based company founded in 2006 whose primary business is selling sofas, sofabeds, chairs and beds online. It has 3 showrooms in London (Chelsea, Bankside and Islington) as well as Nottingham, Bath, Glasgow, Harrogate and Guildford. More recently, it has also opened concessions in some House of Fraser department stores.[1] The company was purchased in January 2019 by Frasers Group (formerly Sports Direct International) for "a nominal sum".[2]

Sofa.com
TypePrivate (subsidiary)
IndustryRetail (various)
GenreDepartment store
Founded2006
HeadquartersLondon, England, UK
Key people
Mike Ashley,
Rohan Blacker,
Pat Reeves (died 2014)
ProductsSofas,
Sofa Beds,
Chairs,
Beds
Revenue£17.6 Million (2014)
ParentFrasers Group
Websitewww.sofa.com

History

Sofa.com was founded by Pat Reeves and Rohan Blacker when they paid $215,000[3] for the domain name sofa.com. It was agreed that Reeves would buy the domain in cash and would meet the seller in New York to complete the transaction. On the day Reeves refused to pay cash and informed the seller he would only pay via wire transfer. The seller reluctantly agreed, and provided bank details, purportedly of the company he was employed by. In fact, the bank details were his own and $200,000 were transferred into his account in November 2005. He absconded to South America, but the money ran out ten months later[4] and the seller was charged with theft greater than $10,000.[5]

Blacker and Reeves sought a business venture that required fewer staff, fewer physical premises and a product with a higher basket value, and a long shelf life.[6] They believed that furniture could be sold online with a promise of completely free returns if the customer, for whatever reason, rejected the goods.[7] Branded by Perry Haydn Taylor's design agency, big fish,[8] Sofa.com was launched in September 2006. It never holds sales, but sells its products all year round.[9]

Sofa.com has appeared twice in the Sunday Times Fast Track 100, a list of the fastest-growing private companies in the UK, first in 2011[10] and again in 2012.[11] Sofa.com sales grew from £572,000 in 2007 to £13.0m in the year ending February 2012. In February 2015, CBPE Capital acquired a majority stake in the business.[12]

In January 2019, Sofa.com's stores and website operations were bought by at a "cut price" by UK billionaire and Sports Direct founder Mike Ashley.[2]

Products

Sofas are sofa.com’s primary product. They are designed in house and come in over 50 different styles ranging from traditional to more contemporary pieces. They are produced in their own factory and upholstered in a large range of fabrics bought directly from mills[13] in Italy and Belgium. House fabrics consist of linen, cotton, velvet and corduroy. Sofa.com also sells sofabeds, chairs and footstools and in 2009 introduced a range of upholstered beds. Most of the sofas are constructed so that the arms are detachable or they split in two, to facilitate easier delivery to the customer.[14] Sofa.com runs its own delivery team with vans that use the strapline ‘Sofa.com: I wonder what they do?’[15] and offsets its carbon output through the agency Forest Carbon[16] by planting trees at a plot in Aberdeenshire.

Design initiatives

In 2010 sofa.com launched its Design Lab[17] initiative, supporting and working with British designers, artists and textile designers. The first collaboration was with St Jude’s, based in Norfolk and run by Simon and Angie Lewin. The second collaboration, with Thornback & Peel, launched in autumn 2012 and includes a range of armchairs, beds and ottomans.

In 2012 sofa.com also launched a nationwide Emerging Designers competition for upcoming British designers.[18]

References
  1. "Our Showrooms". Retrieved 18 January 2020.
  2. "Ashley rests easily with purchase of Sofa.com". Sky News. Retrieved 2019-02-01.
  3. "Talking disruption with Sofa.com founders". Retrieved 17 October 2014.
  4. "Domains, dodgy deals, sofas and strippers". Retrieved 17 October 2014.
  5. Bob Purvis. "Dinesen's employee charged in theft". Retrieved 17 October 2014.
  6. "Next big things on the internet?". The Independent. Retrieved 17 October 2014.
  7. "Talking disruption with Sofa.com founders". Retrieved 17 October 2014.
  8. "sofa.com « big fish® – branding, design + marketing consultants". Retrieved 17 October 2014.
  9. Kate Bassett. "Mary Portas attacks the sofa industry". Retrieved 17 October 2014.
  10. "Company profile". Retrieved 17 October 2014.
  11. "Company profile". Retrieved 17 October 2014.
  12. "Sofa.com attracts private equity investor". Financial Times. Retrieved 2018-02-23.
  13. "Sofa Fabrics - Designer sofas - Fabric sofas - Two & three seat sofas". Retrieved 17 October 2014.
  14. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2012-02-16. Retrieved 2012-01-30.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  15. "Cheering up potential consumers is a great way to spread your brand message". The Nurture Network. Retrieved 17 October 2014.
  16. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2012-07-31. Retrieved 2012-01-30.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  17. "Design Notebook: Teapots in wonderland - The Daily Telegraph". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 17 October 2014.
  18. "Sofa.com - Finalists 2014". Retrieved 17 October 2014.
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