The RM Williams of beds: Meet Gerry Harvey’s sleep soulmate
Behind Harvey Norman’s oldest and largest bedding supplier is the remarkable story of five generations of the Beard family and the unique support of former prime minister John Howard.
It was a chance meeting in 1961 between entrepreneur Austin Beard and then aspiring retailer Gerry Harvey that set Austin’s family-run bedding business, AH Beard, on the path to global success.
At the time, Harvey was running a small whitegoods store in the Sydney suburb of Arncliffe called Harvey Norman Auctions. AH Beard had been established by Austin’s parents, Albert and Ada, in 1927.
After Ada introduced her son to Harvey at their San Souci mattress factory in Southern Sydney, the now retailing billionaire made an initial purchase of six beds, one of which was in a gold fabric and was called the CrestField.
Three days later, he returned to buy more, realising he could make higher margins by selling mattresses than electrical goods.
Fast forward 58 years, and AH Beard is Harvey Norman’s oldest and largest bedding supplier – a testament to the strength of the relationship that has helped shape a business now colloquially known as the “RM Williams of beds”.
Celebrating its 125th anniversary last year, AH Beard has evolved from humble beginnings to become a leader in the sleep industry.
Behind its success is the remarkable journey of five generations of the Beard family, particularly the pivotal contributions of Austin and Ada’s sons, Allyn (now a director) and Garry (now managing director and chairman).
Since 1996 they have steered the company’s growth – from its small Sans Souci factory with just 28 staff producing about 300 mattresses a week, to a national operation with 450 staff producing up to 10,000 mattresses weekly and turning over $150m a year.
The business has grown exports by 220 per cent over the past three years and is now selling up to 2000 mattresses a month into international markets, almost 10 per cent of which are high-end products priced at between $60,000 and $90,000.
Allyn Beard fondly recalls his first meeting with Harvey.
“I was about seven or eight. We were living at Taren Point, and Gerry had just bought a property at Sylvania Waters. He had already become a growing customer for my father,” Beard says.
“Gerry bought a boat, and I took him out to some of the best fishing spots around George River and Botany Bay. He still recalls those days fondly.”
The now 65-year-old Beard, who is in charge of the sales and marketing in the business while his brother Garry, focuses on the operations, holds the key account relationship with Harvey and his wife, Katie Page.
“If Katie has a question or a problem, it is my phone that rings,” he says.
“I’ve had the good fortune of growing up with Gerry’s children. So his son, Michael, is a good friend of mine. He is like a mini-Gerry.”
When AH Beard celebrated its centenary year in 1999, Harvey and Page both appeared on stage to give speeches alongside Austin Beard.
Allyn Beard says the retailing billionaires have provided the family’s business with the reliable cashflow that has allowed it to grow.
“Katie is definitely one of the most dynamic CEOs that I’ve ever had the pleasure of dealing with and she is also always just so black and white,” he says.
“We may not even be in business today if it wasn’t for Gerry turning up at our door 64 years ago.”
From humble origins to enlisting a former PM
Beard family patriarch Enoch William Beard immigrated from the UK to Australia in the 1800s and established The Australian Bedding Mill which produced handmade straw palliasses and tufted horsehair mattresses.
In 1926, after two-and-a-half decades in business, his factory was destroyed by fire. But a year later his son Albert decided to rebuild and rebadge the operation as AH Beard.
Equipped with black-and-white striped ticking, flock, kapok, horsehair and a Singer sewing machine”, Albert and his wife made the first seven AH Beard mattresses by hand within a week.
Austin served during World War II in Northern Queensland and New Guinea, mainly laying communication lines, before taking over the business from his father,
He began embracing modern technology, importing the latest bedding-spring machinery into Australia – including “King Koil”, the first chiropractic-approved mattress.
AH Beard was also expanding by supplying beds to the nation’s biggest hotel chains.
“Growing up I’d quite often spend my weekends helping with the installs in hotel rooms, going around screwing casters on the bottom of the beds,” Allyn Beard says.
In the late 1970s, with the financial support of his spring and fibre suppliers the Warrett family, Austin Beard was able to buy out his sisters who no longer shared his vision for the business.
When Allyn took over running the business with Garry after working their way up from the factory floor, the former’s greatest coup was securing the support of then prime minister John Howard for AH Beard’s expansion into China.
In 1999 Beard, a former member of the Young Liberals, wrote to influential figures, including Mr Howard, then opposition leader Kim Beazley and the NSW premier, Bob Carr, to inform them of AH Beard’s upcoming centenary celebrations,
To his surprise, it was Mr Howard who responded personally, acknowledging the impressive growth of the business.
“Then in 2013 when we started looking at exporting beds to China and were planning the grand opening of the store in Shanghai, they asked for ‘Allyn’s friend Johnny Howard’ to come,” Beard recalls with a wide smile.
Despite his doubts that Mr Howard would engage in any commercial or promotional activities, Beard sent a request to his office.
Then when Mr Howard’s secretary called to say the former PM was happy to talk, the conversation left Beard stunned.
“He goes, ‘How about July?’ I said, ‘Which July?’,” Beard recalls responding in disbelief.
But Mr Howard was serious. A few months later, the former PM and his wife, Janet, were there to cut the ribbon which opened AH Beard’s first China store.
“As soon as the Chinese got hold of word that John Howard was coming, his profile totally exploded,” Beard says.
Five years later the Howards subsequently returned for another store opening in a regional area of China by one of AH Beard’s local partners.
“He was a fantastic orator and a brilliant ambassador for us,” he says.
Family success was never guaranteed
Austin Beard died 12 years ago just after celebrating his 80th birthday following a battle with bowel cancer. He had retired from the business a decade earlier to live in regional Queensland.
Austin’s wife Eleanor, a talented seamstress who taught her children to sew and was the rock of the family throughout her life, died just before the Covid-19 pandemic, at the age of 86.
Upon Austin’s passing Gerry Harvey’s legal counsel, Chris Brown, helped the Beards set up testamentary trusts for the transition of AH Beard to the four members of the fourth generation. But Allyn and Garry’s two sisters are not involved in the business.
In 2013 the Beards also wrote what is known as the “rules of the game”, which documents the arrangements for family members coming into the business.
“You have to apply for the job just like everybody else, and just because your surname may start with B doesn’t give you any advantage or preference whatsoever,” Allyn says.
The rules were updated in 2020 and then again in April last year. There are now five members of the fifth generation working in the business.
Just because they’re family, doesn’t mean the brothers got an easy ride to the top; they had to work their way up.
Garry was reportedly Initially told by his father “go and get educated and get a job outside of the business” because the company was “not going to go to the next generation”.
Yet after working outside the business for a time, he was “sacked” by his father shortly after he commenced at AH Beard.
Garry has previously recalled his “sacking” happened when the Warrett family bankrolled his father’s purchase of the AH Beard business from his two aunts.
“So I remember vividly going and sitting on the veranda with Harry and Lionel (Warrett) and Harry said to Dad ‘What do you want to do?’ and he said ‘well I haven’t got the money to buy the business’.
“So Harry said ‘why don’t you buy it’, and Dad said, ‘Well, what does that entail?’ to which Harry responded, ‘well, work out what you think is a fair price and come back and see me’. So, I was sacked on Thursday and we had to be back at the board table on the following Thursday.”
The story of AH Beard is not just one of relationships; it is also one of innovation.
In recent years, the company has embraced trends like “sleep-maxxing”, recognising that sleep is critical to overall health.
“We believe sleep is just as important as diet and exercise,” Allyn Beard says. “If you are not sleeping well, you are not able to do anything well. It is not just about buying a bed; it is about buying a good night’s sleep.”
With its expansion into markets such as China, Brazil, Portugal, Spain and the UK, AH Beard continues to focus on its core values of quality, craftsmanship, and customer care.
“It is not rocket science, our business. A lot of it is based on relationships, like with Gerry and Katie and others,” Beard says, adding that given its size and profile, offers have been made by third parties for the firm. But the family has turned them down.
He acknowledges that AH Beard may one day grow to a size whereby external managers are needed. But one thing, he hopes, will stay the same to honour the company’s rich history.
“We have a vision of the family business surviving for 200 years,” he says proudly.
“While still being under family ownership.”
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