Freedom Furniture

Freedom was founded in Sydney in 1981 by Warren Higgs, and the business grew quickly enough that it opened its first Melbourne store within three years, in 1984. By 1987 the company had built its own in-house design department and one of Australia's first dedicated visual-merchandising teams, moving beyond a straightforward furniture-retail model toward developing its own product lines. Investment company Jamison Equity bought the business in 1991, and Freedom listed on the Australian Securities Exchange in 1996, the same year it expanded into New Zealand through franchisee Farmers Deka. In 1999 it acquired the Guests and Andersons furniture chains for roughly A$22.4 million in cash and stock, and in 2003 management took the company private again in a buyout backed by Steinhoff International, then also the company's supplier and largest shareholder. In June 2025, Freedom was acquired by Amart Furniture, a portfolio company of Quadrant Private Equity, folding it into a larger Australian furniture retail group after more than four decades as an independent brand.