Australia home furnishings giant Coco Republic has partnered with Los Angeles based STORY3 Capital Partners in a venture designed to jumpstart the company’s domestic and international expansion plans.
Operating in Australia for more than four decades, founder and chairman Paul Spon-Smith has built a luxury lifestyle brand that’s become a fixture in the culture.
Two decades into his tenure with the family-owned company, Anthony Spon-Smith is set to serve in the role of Co-CEO in the new venture.
"Today is an important milestone in Coco Republic's growth journey, with the announcement that STORY3 is joining the business as a partner to provide important capital and leading disruptive brand and retail expertise,” he told PR Newswire. “Together we look to succeed in our goal of becoming a leading global direct to consumer lifestyle brand."
STORY3 Managing Partner Peter Comisar is counting down the time until the leading alternative investment manager can become more hands on.
"We are delighted to be a value-added partner to Anthony, Nic Foster, Jeremy Byrne and the entire team at Coco Republic for the company's important next chapters,” he said. “Coco Republic's compelling product, design and end-to-end service takes the friction out of the customer's journey to extraordinary living and working spaces. Over the next decade, we will see radical transformation of and investment in American residential real estate and communities. Work-office flexibility and 'stay at home' will accelerate home purchases, renovation, relocation, vacation home ownership and home office furniture and furnishing needs. Coco Republic's luxury style, product quality and design services fill a void for affluent and aspiring younger, more contemporary consumers."
STORY3 is also poised to make a parallel investment in California based home retailer H.D. Buttercup, an establishment that has served as a wholesale partner for Coco Republic U.S. operations.
Coco Republic has retail showrooms in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, the Gold Coast, Perth, Canberra and Auckland, New Zealand.