Steve Layton is the founder of the furniture business The Layton Group. Supplying furniture to large Australian retailers such as John Cootes and Harvey Norman since 1998. Layton started the business in Hong Kong in 1990, exporting furniture to Australia, the US, and Europe.

Layton’s new, reworked venture Sofa Brands is a three-way supply and retail agreement with Italian furniture business Calia Italia and leading Chinese furniture retailer, De Rucci, which has more than 2000 stores.

What was the first transaction for Steve? (13:39)

• The very first transaction would have been a container of sofas shipped to Auckland in New Zealand.
• The tough thing was finding the factories, finding the manufacturers, finding the product, and then developing the product.
• Back in the day, they had to be on the ground, shaking hands and making relationships with the Chinese manufacturers.

How did Steve go about hiring his first employee? (20:51)

• The first hire was in Hong Kong in 1991.
• They had the shipping person who handled all the logistics and the paperwork for the export.
• They had a PA who was handling all his travel and various other things.
• The people they focused on most, which they spent most of their money on was quality control. They had four quality control inspectors based in China.
• Steve believes that focusing on good quality products from the start is what helped his business grow. 
• They did not own the manufacturer; they were only developing the product and then sold that.

Roland’s mistake which ended up making everything move faster? (7:12)

• They committed to material back in 2009, which was a new material called bonded leather.
• They put together a collection of furniture, presented it to one of the biggest retailers in Australia and they took it up.
• Everyone was telling him that he can’t use that material since no one would be interested. However, it became a $12mil category of leather material.
• By taking such a big risk, it ended becoming a huge success.
• Since the pivot, the IP that they have, and the business models that they're actually growing is going to have a real value.
• There are huge upsides on average transaction values now, as they’re racing back up to the middle and having the exclusive production and distribution rights on the two big Italian brands. 

The Layton Group

The Layton Group has been one of Australia’s premier furniture supply and manufacturing businesses, supplying furniture and homewares to the majority of Australia’s largest retailers since 1998.

Resources

Sofa Brands: Website

Beyond 8 Figures: Website

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