Mike Clare's Success Story

Chairman & Founder Dreams Plc

Dreams is Britain’s leading furniture chain, selling everything from beds and pillows to mattresses. It offers a great choice of qualitative products and that’s what makes it a worthy competitor. There are around 5000 companies, which sell beds in the UK today. Half of the Ј1.2bn market is owned by 20 bed retailers. Dreams is the largest one, holding over 200 stores in the whole country and employing more than 1700 people. But how did his Founder, Mike Clare, get here? Where and when is actually his success story rooted?

Born in Buckinghamshire, UK, Mike Clare lost his father on the age of 12. It was a great shock for the family, because they suddenly got on the line, having not enough money even to go on a holiday. These were key years for the young Mike. He learned the value of money and how to deal with it. Clare started earning some bucks, by washing people’s cars and at the age of 16 he started reselling batches of used tents through ads in local newspapers.

A couple of years later Mike Clare decided to attend the High Wycombe College in order to study Business and Economics. Meanwhile, in the course of the next 10 years he worked for a couple of furniture companies, including Williams’ Furniture, Hardy’s Furniture and Perring’s Furniture. But he wanted to achieve something more than just working for other. His passion for beds and desire of running his own business led him to opening his first store, called Sofa Bed Centre. The year was 1985, the slogan, hanging on the store’s window – “high quality, low prices”.

Two years later the stores was already 5 and Clare decided to rename the chain to “Dreams”. In 1990 the company specialized exclusively in beds. It was developing faster and faster with every past year and today “Dreams” has already reached the level of being the largest bed retailer in the United Kingdom. It owns almost 250 stores in the whole country and has over 1,700 employees.

Up to this date Mike Clare is part of many entrepreneur and charity organizations, being also awarded as a Furniture Retailer of the Year and listed in Sunday Times Rich List. He is leading a happy family life in Beaconsfield. He is married and has 4 children and one dog, called Morpheus – named after the Greek God of Dreams.