As Sofa.com is acquired by private equity firm CBPE for around £50m, Retail Week takes a detailed look at the furniture specialist’s history.

  • Sofa.com was founded in 2005 by former lawyers Pat Reeves and Rohan Blacker
  • The founders bought the Sofa.com domain name from Steve Galstad of Dinesen’s Leather in Milwaukee for $215,000. It transpired Galstad did not technically own the domain name and he used the money to elope to South America with a stripper from Las Vegas
  • Even though Galstad was only the manager and not the owner of Dinesen’s Leather, he still had the authority at the time of the deal to sell the domain name owned by the firm. The airtight contract allowed Reeves and Blacker to keep the domain name
  • The retailer opened a 3,000 sq ft showroom in Amsterdam in 2009
  • Sofa.com expanded its product range to include beds in 2009
  • The retailer opened a showroom in the US in 2012 in the Chelsea district of New York City
  • Gareth Williams was promoted from chief operating officer to chief executive in 2013
  • Sofa.com appointed financial advisors Altium in December 2013 to explore a potential sale
  • Founder Pat Reeves died in January 2014 at the age of 46 after a battle with cancer
  • Sofa.com reported a 48% rise in adjusted EBITDA to £5.3m for the 12 months to 28 February, 2014, as sales jumped 20% to £20.2m
  • The furniture etailer hired Linda Ormrod in October 2014 as its first director of retail operations in the UK and Europe in order to support its expansion
  • In the UK Sofa.com expanded out of London in November 2014 and picked Bath as the location of its second showroom
  • In January 2015 Sofa.com took its 100,000th order. More than 600 miles of fabric has been upholstered on to the retailer’s sofas, beds and chairs, and more than 60,000 sofas have been sold

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