First Appearance on QVC this Friday
CordaRoy’s, Gainesville’s successful beanbag furniture company, will be featured for the first time on QVC this Friday, Sept. 27 at 8pm. CordaRoy’s are known for their utility, as the bean bag itself is actually covered in a corduroy slipcover that can be removed to allow the bag to unfold into a bed.
CordaRoy’s owner Byron Young appeared on ABC’s Shark Tank in March, where investor Lori Greiner took a 58 percent interest in the company for a $200,000 investment. They’ve since tweaked their terms slightly, though Young kept that under wraps. Young will be on QVC live with Greiner during her “Clever and Unique Creations” segment.
His relationship with Greiner is basically a partnership, he said. “She’s interested in everything we do and we’ve got some things lined up for next year that could make us a household name almost overnight.”
Business, Young said, is booming since his appearance on Shark Tank. The company will more than double 2012’s sales, he said, and he’s hired on his longtime CPA as a full time employee.
“These initial orders that are on the horizon are astronomical compared to our normal orders,” he said. “For instance, if we were to get an order for say, 14,000 units, and then somehow managed to get them all made, we’d be high fiving at the end of it. But there wouldn’t be time for it because they could sell out in one day with the exposure we’re talking about.”
That’s a huge change from when he started the company over a decade ago. Initial customers might not know, he said, that their “custom orders” were custom because he didn’t have an inventory in the early days. Customers would prepay and his small company would go out to a warehouse where they would cut fabrics and assemble the bag. He said his first investment partner’s first question after seeing their operation was: “And this is working?”
Now, Young and his team have to figure out how to accommodate more orders than they’ve ever had while introducing new colors and fabrics into their production line, as well as a new footstool that contains two memory foam pillows. For the first time, he said, their production schedule is maxed out, and the QVC appearance can only add to that.
“Hopefully the world will love us,” he said.
CordaRoy’s is located at 5310 NW 8th Ave. and cordaroys.com
