SWINDON-based Oak Furniture Land has revealed a new chain of stores that will see it branching out into soft furnishings.

The company, which has its head office on the South Marston Industrial Estate, today unveiled SofaStore, offering sofas and suites and adding to the company’s traditional oak furniture offering.

SofaStore showrooms will be launched at 57 Oak Furniture Land stores across the country today, alongside a TV advert campaign and four stand-alone stores in Rotherham, Croydon, Glasgow and Farnham.

The firm said there was no dedicated store for Swindon, but the brand would feature at the current Oak Furniture Land premises, at Mannington Retail Park.

The new project is the latest twist in the story of Oak Furniture Land’s founder and managing director Jason Bannister, who launched the original company on eBay in 2006.

The company now employs 1,000 people across the UK and last week it was recognised by the Sunday Times Fast Track 100 for the fifth time in six years. It has been the highest ranking furniture company for the past four.

Sales have rocketed from £35m in 2010 to £194m this year and year-on-year the business has grown by more than 40 per cent, opening an average of one new store each month in 2014.

“Our approach at Oak Furniture Land has been very successful, selling quality products at a great price, taking a multichannel approach, allowing customers to get their orders quickly and with free delivery,” Jason said.

“Now we are applying this to sofas and I’m excited about the SofaStore launch and our growth plans.”

The stores will benefit from the experience of staff in Swindon.

The company website www.sofastore.com says: “At our head offices in Swindon, we have a fully matured logistics operation, an experienced customer service department, our on home delivery team, a half a million square feet distribution centre, in fact everything we need to give you the confidence to know that you will be well looked after.”

More SofaStore showrooms are also set to be opened on Boxing Day, with outlets at Aberdeen, Burnley, Cribbs Causeway, Hull, Leicester, Norwich, Sheffield and Stockton, alongside the four already in operation.

Visit www.sofastore.com.