Suzanne Macleod, Chief Commercial Officer at Sourcebynet, shares an insight into their creative direction for children’s furniture.
Global furniture development and sourcing company, Sourcebynet is on a mission to transform the children’s furniture market.
Recently appointed as the official licensed furniture partner for the BBC’s hugely successful Bluey franchise, the company also includes the Disney licence within its portfolio; working collaboratively with each brand to create defined children’s furniture collections launching in AW24. With a vision to evolve design and development, the new collections reveal a step-change in creative direction, quality and value for branded children’s furniture.
“We are committed to creating something truly new and exciting for today’s parents, delivering furniture that not only enhances the home but also captures the imagination of children,” says Suzanne. “Partnering with major brands in the children’s space is evident of the trust in our expertise and alignment with our vision for a revolutionary shift in the children’s furniture market; where innovation meets storytelling, and functionality seamlessly blends with the modern lifestyle.”
Sourcebynet is not just about furniture; it’s about creating a new standard for children’s living spaces, where every piece tells a story and serves a purpose. Combined with value and exceptional quality that ensures longevity in durability and design.
“We’re witnessing a notable shift in consumer preferences, particularly among parents who are increasingly mindful of how their homes reflect their values, tastes, and the environments they wish to create for their families,” Suzanne said. “While a certain percentage of parents are happy to indulge their children with character-focused products, there is an increasing desire for products that are not only fun and engaging for their children, but aesthetically align better with personal tastes and overall design of their living spaces.
“We believe this shift represents an exciting opportunity to reimagine children’s homewares. We’re dedicated to offering innovative, story-driven designs that satisfy both the playful spirit of kids and the refined tastes of parents, bridging the gap between childhood joy and contemporary style.”
The recent appointment of the BBC Bluey licence for children’s furniture marks a major milestone for Sourcebynet. Taking as much inspiration as possible from Bluey content, pieces have been designed and developed to emotionally engage, capture the fun and imaginative play of Bluey on-screen and bring to life in the home.
“Bluey fans will recognise the reversible play sofa inspired by favourite episodes ‘Cubby’ and ‘Neighbours’, and the teepee designed in our own unique Bluey print gives a nod to the hugely popular ‘Camping’ episode,” Suzanne said. “We have purposely kept our first collection tight as we bring a new execution on licensed furniture to the market.”
Sourcebynet was brought onboard by Disney in 2022, prior to the launch of Disney Home to take the brand into broader retail distribution.
“AW 24 sees our new vision finally start to come to life,” Suzanne revealed. “We are confident our new ranges, including a first ever Moana furniture collection ahead of the big screen release of Moana 2, will challenge industry and consumer perceptions for licensed children’s furniture and have widespread appeal.”
Sourcebynet’s sourcing operation is built around the fundamental principles of ethical and sustainable practice that enables supply of great value products with guaranteed quality and compliance to the strictest global standards. Strengthened by over 20 years of expertise, this ensures brands benefit from Sourcebynet’s robust supply chain and established global network of trusted partners.
“Sustainability is ensuring conscious design and responsible sourcing is second nature throughout our business. Our strategy holds us accountable for our actions while supporting our customers and suppliers to adopt on theirs.” comments Ben Peasdon, Head of Sustainability. “We have seen significant progress over the past 12 months, through achieving third-party verification of our Green House Gases, following the ISO 14064-1 standard.
“We now understand our impact and are committing to targets to reduce. Our focus over the coming 12 months will be lower the emissions of our products. Over 90% of measurable CO2e emissions from furniture retailers come from the products they design, source, and sell. We are proud of the progress we’re making, and recognise that sustainability is an ongoing journey yet has opportunities for improvement.”
Sourcebynet offers innovative furniture solutions across living, bedroom, dining, children’s and outdoor categories for private label, own brand and licensed partners. With a vision to bring best in class solutions focused products for modern homes, delivered with excellence in quality assurance for leading global retailers via its network of offices in Europe, Asia and Australia.
“Our commitment to continued progression and innovation in development,” Suzanne added. “For the branded division, we have a significant development pipeline across a number of new categories including outdoor and play as well as new partnerships and licences coming online.
“We are very focused on delivering enhanced value for our retail partners and that now includes also helping them to identify brands and collaborations that will appeal to their customers and managing that end-to-end process right through to delivery of the ranges. On non-branded we continue to grow and invest in dining, living, bedroom and outdoor with a number of very exciting developments and new ranges coming.”
For more information, contact UK Head of Sales, James Kyte james.kyte@sourcebynet.com
