Dfs (retailer)
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

DFS (DFS Furniture plc, stylised as dfs, is a furniture retailer in the
United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...
, Spain and
Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...
specialising in sofas and soft furnishings. It is listed on the
London Stock Exchange London Stock Exchange (LSE) is a stock exchange in the City of London, England, United Kingdom. , the total market value of all companies trading on LSE was £3.9 trillion. Its current premises are situated in Paternoster Square close to St P ...
.


History


Northern Upholstery

In 1969, aged 22, Graham Kirkham was married with two children, which he describes as great motivation. Having visited a few manufacturers in his daily work, he decided that making furniture was relatively easy and that by cutting out the warehouse dealers in the middle of the supply chain, he could sell direct to the public at lower prices. Kirkham rented a room above a snooker hall in Carcroft, and started making furniture upstairs and retailing it downstairs, calling the business Northern Upholstery.


DFS

In 1983, Kirkham purchased the business and the name of the
Darley Dale Darley Dale, also known simply as Darley, is a town and civil parish in the Derbyshire Dales district of Derbyshire, England, with a population of 5,413. It lies north of Matlock, on the River Derwent and the A6 road. The town forms part ...
based DFS Furniture Limited, founded by the Hardy Family in 1963 or 1969. Northern Upholstery was renamed DFS (although some branches of Northern Upholstery in Yorkshire retained their original name until the mid-1990s) and at the time, had a total of sixty three stores, employing 2,000 staff. In 1993, DFS was floated on the stock market as DFS Furniture Company plc and valued at £271 million, with Kirkham and his family trusts owning just over half of the shares. The group had 21 stores at the time. This brought the Kirkham family to the attention of thieves, who in 1994, broke into the family home at
Sprotbrough Sprotbrough is a village in the City of Doncaster in South Yorkshire, England, west of the centre. With Cusworth to the north, it forms the civil parish of Sprotbrough and Cusworth. Sprotbrough village had a population of 3,321 at the 2011 c ...
while they were on holiday. The burglars bound and gagged the housekeeper and made off with money and jewels worth £2.4 million, later recovered, but still South Yorkshire's largest armed robbery. In 1998, DFS announced its first drop in profits in twenty eight years to the
London Stock Exchange London Stock Exchange (LSE) is a stock exchange in the City of London, England, United Kingdom. , the total market value of all companies trading on LSE was £3.9 trillion. Its current premises are situated in Paternoster Square close to St P ...
. The company reworked its advertising to feature younger models, and in 2000, DFS announced a 79 percent profit increase. But the revival was short lived, and in light of the continuing prevalence for
private equity In the field of finance, the term private equity (PE) refers to investment funds, usually limited partnerships (LP), which buy and restructure financially weak companies that produce goods and provide services. A private-equity fund is both a t ...
, Kirkham took the chain private again in 2004, leveraging his family's own 9.46% stake with £150 million of family funds in an eventual £496 million deal. Kirkham told the ''
Yorkshire Post ''The Yorkshire Post'' is a daily broadsheet newspaper, published in Leeds in Yorkshire, England. It primarily covers stories from Yorkshire although its masthead carries the slogan "Yorkshire's National Newspaper". It was previously owned by ...
'': "It's something that's caused me fitful sleep in the time I've been thinking about it. I've no hobby, this is my hobby – it's what I do. I'm an entrepreneur. It's almost as if I can feel the adrenaline running through my veins." On 3 April 2010, it was announced that DFS had been sold to private equity firm
Advent International Advent International is a global private equity firm focused on buyouts of companies in Western and Central Europe, North America, Latin America and Asia. The firm focuses on international buyouts, growth and strategic restructuring in five core ...
for a reported £500 million. DFS then acquired two smaller British retailers which had been struggling in the market: Sofa Workshop in 2013 and Dwell in August 2014. On 6 March 2015, the company floated on the
London Stock Exchange London Stock Exchange (LSE) is a stock exchange in the City of London, England, United Kingdom. , the total market value of all companies trading on LSE was £3.9 trillion. Its current premises are situated in Paternoster Square close to St P ...
again as DFS Furniture plc. In October 2017, DFS announced they had purchased one of their competitors,
Sofology Sofology (formerly known as Sofaworks, CSL, Clayton Salerooms, and CS Lounge Suites Ltd), is a British furniture retailer specialising in sofas. History Sofology started out as CSL Sofas, and was originally an auction rooms based in Clayton-le-M ...
(formerly Sofaworks and CSL) in a £25 million deal. The acquisition was ratified by the
Competition and Markets Authority The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) is the competition regulator in United Kingdom. It is a non-ministerial government department in the United Kingdom, responsible for strengthening business competition and preventing and reducing anti-com ...
in November 2017.


Marketing

For many years in the 1980s and 1990s, actor Tom Adams was the face of DFS's television advertisements. In December 2008, one television commercial by DFS was banned by the Advertising Standards Authority, following complaints that the company had doctored the footage to inflate the perceived size of their sofas, relative to the actors. The advert featured actors miming
Nickelback Nickelback is a Canadian rock band formed in 1995 in Hanna, Alberta. It is composed of guitarist and lead vocalist Chad Kroeger, guitarist, keyboardist and backing vocalist Ryan Peake, bassist Mike Kroeger, and drummer Daniel Adair. It wen ...
's "
Rockstar Rock Star or Rockstar may refer to: Films * ''Rock Star'' (2001 film), an American film starring Mark Wahlberg * ''Rockstar'' (2011 film), an Indian Hindi-language film by Imtiaz Ali * ''Rockstar'' (2015 film), an Indian Malayalam-language fi ...
", while playing
air guitar Air guitar is a form of dance and movement in which the performer pretends to play an imaginary rock or heavy metal-style electric guitar, including riffs and solos. Playing an air guitar usually consists of exaggerated strumming and picking m ...
in front of the sofas. That month, the advert was also given the distinction as one of the worst adverts of all time.


Acquisitions

* Furniture businesses of
Wyefield Group Live Company Group plc formerly known as Parallel Media Group plc, World Sport Group plc and Orchard Furniture plc, is a public company based in Surrey and formerly in London. The company is listed in the Alternative Investment Market. The company ...
(June 1999, £1.5 million)


Sofa Workshop

Sofa Workshop is a furniture
manufacturer Manufacturing is the creation or production of goods with the help of equipment, labor, machines, tools, and chemical or biological processing or formulation. It is the essence of secondary sector of the economy. The term may refer to ...
and
retailer Retail is the sale of goods and Service (economics), services to consumers, in contrast to wholesaling, which is sale to business or institutional customers. A retailer purchases goods in large quantities from manufacturing, manufacturers, dire ...
of handmade furniture, offering both product and fabric customisation that DFS acquired in 2013. The furniture is handmade in Britain. As well as sofas and chairs, it also makes a range of accessories including footstools, cushions and made to measure curtains. Formerly based in Lodsworth,
West Sussex West Sussex is a county in South East England on the English Channel coast. The ceremonial county comprises the shire districts of Adur, Arun, Chichester, Horsham, and Mid Sussex, and the boroughs of Crawley and Worthing. Covering an ...
,
United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...
, it is now headquartered in
Peasmarsh, Surrey Shalford is a village and civil parish in Surrey, England on the A281 Horsham road immediately south of Guildford. It has a railway station which is between Guildford and Dorking on the Reading to Gatwick Airport line. It has one named loc ...
. Sofa Workshop, founded by Andrew Cussins in 1985, opened its first store in
Maidstone Maidstone is the largest town in Kent, England, of which it is the county town. Maidstone is historically important and lies 32 miles (51 km) east-south-east of London. The River Medway runs through the centre of the town, linking it wi ...
in 1986. In November 2002, Cussins sold the company to
MFI Group MFI Group Limited was a British furniture retailer, operating under the MFI brand. The company was one of the largest suppliers of kitchens and bedroom furniture in the United Kingdom, and operated mainly in retail parks in out of town locations ...
for £12.25 million. Seen by many as a poor marriage of brands due to different customer markets when MFI ceased selling lounge furniture, Sofa Workshop was sold. It was bought in October 2006, by the New Haven Group, which then appointed an administrator in May 2008. At that stage, the company had thirty one stores in
England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
,
Scotland Scotland (, ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a Anglo-Scottish border, border with England to the southeast ...
and
Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. Nort ...
, employing 160 people. The company had revenue amounting to £30 million in the year ending May 2008. On 31 December 2008, Sofa Workshop announced
Leonard Curtis Leonard Curtis is one of the largest independent firms in the UK specialising in corporate recovery, insolvency and business restructuring. It is a national practice with more than 250 staff based at offices in Manchester, Bury, Liverpool, Presto ...
as a possible administrator. Leonard Curtis stated at the time that there had been expressions of interest in purchasing the company. It was reported on 31 January 2009 that Sofa Workshop had been sold. Leonard Curtis said ten of the company's thirty stores had been bought by Erewash Upholstery, which is controlled by a consortium of investors led by Andrew Cussins, who founded Sofa Workshop in 1985. Soon after the management buyout, Cussins moved on. Since the change of ownership, Sofa Workshop has re established itself as a furniture retailer in the United Kingdom, and has seen a 40% increase in profits in the year ending December 2010. Sofa Workshop Ltd now has twenty shops nationwide including a franchise shop in Chester. They are located in Edinburgh, Glasgow, Exeter, Bath, Bristol, Manchester, Guildford, Chichester, Cambridge, Harrogate, Gateshead, Kingston, Tunbridge Wells, Battersea, Chiswick, Newbury, Oxford, Westfield Stratford City, King's Road, and Tottenham Court Road in London. In January 2012, they opened a second shop in Battersea, London as a dedicated ''Clearance Outlet''. In October 2013, Sofa Workshop was acquired by DFS. However, it continues to trade as its own distinct business and brand as a part of DFS.


References


External links

* {{Authority control Furniture retailers of the United Kingdom Companies listed on the London Stock Exchange Companies based in Doncaster Retail companies established in 1969 1969 establishments in England