New concept for Snooze bedroom furniture franchises announced amid expansion plans

Bedding chain Snooze has announced plans to expand its network of bedroom furniture franchises, setting a target of 100 stores by 2014, a 25 per cent growth on current figures.

Snooze CEO Simon Beaty explains that the company currently has 28 sites at some stage of negotiation, and has identified a list of geographic locations for store development.

The main constraint on expansion, he says, is the availability of quality franchisee prospects.

“Most franchises are having some difficulty finding suitable applicants at the moment, although we believe we are well positioned with a sound business model that has been around for 35 years plus,” Mr Beaty notes.

New Snooze bedroom furniture franchises have recently been opened at Alexandria and Kotara in NSW, and at a homemaker centre in Chadstone, Melbourne.

Snooze currently operates eight corporate stores, compared to 18 two years ago, and Mr Beaty says the company plans to further reduce the number of company-owned outlets in the future.

A new mattress only bedding concept is also being tested by Snooze in Fortitude Valley, Brisbane. At 600sqm the new ‘sleep centre’ is a smaller format store when compared to the usual 1000 to 1100sqm profile of other Snooze bedding franchises.

While trading across the retail sector remains inconsistent, Mr Beaty says that Snooze has enjoyed a successful post Christmas trading period, reporting an increase in turnover of nine per cent on last year.