Dreams History

In 1985 after many years in Furniture Retailing Mike Clare had the vision and foresight to realise there was an opportunity in the marketplace for a specialist bed retailer. He then opened the first shop in Uxbridge, West London initially specialising in sofa beds but soon realised there was a huge opportunity to specialise in all types of beds.

After all everybody sleeps in a bed and has to have one, yet whilst there were plenty of places you could buy one there were no specialists offering the product range, knowledge and understanding of just how important the right bed is.

By 1987 Dreams had a group of 5 stores with a new Head Office and Warehouse in High Wycombe.

Dreams had a simple concept of building the business on four solid cornerstones of Price, Choice, Delivery and Comfort.

Also, during this early stage of the company's development Dreams became one of the founder members of the Sleep Council further enhancing their commitment to offering the customer everything they could possibly want when buying a bed.

The 1990's witnessed a gathering pace in Dreams' expansion and achievements. 1990 saw the opening of the first franchise, on the Isle of Wight. In 1992 Dreams opened a huge flagship store in London's fashionable Tottenham Court Road and Dreams even made it in to the Guinness Book of Records with the world's largest bed.

In 1994 Dreams won their first of many awards - National Bed Retailer of the Year and this was swiftly followed in 1996 when they were voted Furniture Retailer of the Year. By this time the store portfolio had increased to over 20 and such was the expansion plan that Head Office moved to Knaves Beech, High Wycombe and included Britain's Largest Bed Warehouse.

Two years later and the company became Dreams Plc, which now reflected the stature of Dreams as a business and a consequence of this was the opening of a vital second huge distribution centre in Crawley.

The year 2000 saw the store count rise in excess of 50 with 4 distribution centres. Staff levels rose to over 250 and Dreams was now turning over in excess of £30 million per annum. The website dreamsplc.com was launched and Dreams were voted Furniture Retailer of the Year for a second time.

In 2002 Dreams opened their very own Mattress Factory in the Midlands and 2003 saw the 100 th Dreams store open which just happened to be the world's largest bed store, in Wednesbury, West Midlands.

The company's expansion and commitment to further enhancing their position as Britain's leading Bed Specialist meant that it was set for even greater heights and in 2004 Dreams received again the award of Furniture Retailer of the Year, for an unprecedented third time.

2006 will see major development as Dreams expands in to the North West of England opening new stores and new Distribution Depot. The mattress factory will quadruple in size to produce a whole range of beds. Dreams now employ over 1,000 staff with over 120 stores, 9 distribution centres, 8 franchises and a fleet of over 90 delivery vans. All this will see Dreams turnover top £150 million.

However the one thing they do not do at Dreams is ‘sleep on it'. Mike Clare's involvement and drive in the day-to-day running of the business remains as strong as ever and the expansion plans are set to take them beyond 200 stores.