Coco Republic opens San Francisco store in California rollout

Up-market Australian furniture retailer Coco Republic has opened its first store in San Francisco as part of a rollout of three American shops in California.

Coco Republic’s new store in Union Square building, San Francisco, is the company second of three in its US rollout.

Up-market Australian furniture retailer Coco Republic has opened its first store in San Francisco as part of a rollout of three American shops in California as it builds its brand on the American East Coast.

Coco Republic’s vice chairman and creative director, the Sydney-based Anthony Spon-Smith, said the San Francisco store was the second of three American shops for the retailer, with a third site planned for a yet-to-be-determined site in Orange County. But the American rollout of the group, which lists its investors as US private equity group Story3 Capital Partners, may not stop there.

“I’ve just had a call with someone looking to open Coco Republics all around in the world,” Mr Spon-Smith told The Australian.

“There’s a person who wants to represent us in South America, Asia and the Middle East.”

Anthony Spon-Smith, Coco Republic’s vice-chairman and creative director.

Mr Spon-Smith, who has been designing for the brand for the past 12 years, said he will pause after the three-store rollout in California, although there has been quite a bit of interest in opening major stores in Texas, Miami, other parts of Florida and New York.

Mr Spon-Smith said Coco Republic’s outdoor range, particularly its sofas, chairs and dining tables, have done well with the Americans, adding that he designed and sourced the materials himself.

“There’s a gap in the market place for it. American consumers expect us Australians to be good at outdoor furniture ranges,” Mr Spon-Smith said.

“It costs as much to open a store in Canberra, Perth or Auckland as it does in the US, but there’s a population of 40 million in California and in Los Angeles alone you have 25 million.”

All the categories are still designed in Australia but are manufactured around the world.

“We do the upholstery in North Carolina, and all through Asia we have teams in place,” he said.

“People change upholstery more than they change anything else in their homes – and that happens every five to 10 years. Whereas homewares and lighting are like the jewellery of your home – it’s relatively cheap to change.”