Gian Fazio visited Richmond enough that he knew he wanted to open his upscale bedding store here.
At the end of January, Fazio opened Layers Bed Company at Short Pump Town Center with plans to open four more stores within the year.
“We’re trying to do what Williams-Sonoma did for the kitchen, but with bedding,” said Fazio, 32.
Along with his business partner and longtime friend Karolina Kaczmarek, he decided to launch his one-stop shop here after a trip to Richmond last year.
“With so many stores here, you have to buy your mattress one place and buy your bed somewhere else,” Fazio said.
The company manufactures the bedding under the Layers label in Danville. The beds come from all over but are not made by Layers.
Fazio was born in Italy and lived in London for 18 years before deciding to settle in Richmond last year to open his business.
“I liked the place and thought it’d be fun to do something here,” he said.
The mattresses, which sell for between $700 and $1300, are made in Danville. The other products come from all over, including Belgium, Italy and India.
Layers isn’t the only bed retailer coming to town. Sleepys, a New York-based chain of bed stores, has been opening locations in Richmond. (You can read more about that in an RBS story here. )
Fazio and Kaczmarek met in college in London and were pursuing other careers before deciding to venture out on their own.
“I was an economic adviser for the British government for five years, and she was a law graduate and her family had been involved in the furniture business for many years,” Fazio said.
They threw around a couple of ideas such as taking Netflix to Europe or opening a chain of gas stations, but with Kaczmarek’s background, they decided on a bed boutique.
“She had the know-how for the business,” said Fazio.
Before opening in January, the partners visited local mattress chains and bed stores for a year to get a feel for how they should operate.
“We went to strip malls [and] to different mattress stores and saw all these high prices and scams, and the same mattresses would be different prices at other places,” said Fazio.
“It was an unpleasant experience.”
After a more than $1 million investment, they signed the lease on the Short Pump location, moved into the space in September and within fours months had the store up and running. Even though the Richmond store just opened last week, Fazio has his sights on multiple locations.
He plans to open a store in Charlottesville by this spring or early summer and eventually expand to D.C., North Carolina and New York.
“We want to try and open four this year and four by next year,” he said, adding that he dreams of one day having 100.
Gian Fazio visited Richmond enough that he knew he wanted to open his upscale bedding store here.
At the end of January, Fazio opened Layers Bed Company at Short Pump Town Center with plans to open four more stores within the year.
“We’re trying to do what Williams-Sonoma did for the kitchen, but with bedding,” said Fazio, 32.
Along with his business partner and longtime friend Karolina Kaczmarek, he decided to launch his one-stop shop here after a trip to Richmond last year.
“With so many stores here, you have to buy your mattress one place and buy your bed somewhere else,” Fazio said.
The company manufactures the bedding under the Layers label in Danville. The beds come from all over but are not made by Layers.
Fazio was born in Italy and lived in London for 18 years before deciding to settle in Richmond last year to open his business.
“I liked the place and thought it’d be fun to do something here,” he said.
The mattresses, which sell for between $700 and $1300, are made in Danville. The other products come from all over, including Belgium, Italy and India.
Layers isn’t the only bed retailer coming to town. Sleepys, a New York-based chain of bed stores, has been opening locations in Richmond. (You can read more about that in an RBS story here. )
Fazio and Kaczmarek met in college in London and were pursuing other careers before deciding to venture out on their own.
“I was an economic adviser for the British government for five years, and she was a law graduate and her family had been involved in the furniture business for many years,” Fazio said.
They threw around a couple of ideas such as taking Netflix to Europe or opening a chain of gas stations, but with Kaczmarek’s background, they decided on a bed boutique.
“She had the know-how for the business,” said Fazio.
Before opening in January, the partners visited local mattress chains and bed stores for a year to get a feel for how they should operate.
“We went to strip malls [and] to different mattress stores and saw all these high prices and scams, and the same mattresses would be different prices at other places,” said Fazio.
“It was an unpleasant experience.”
After a more than $1 million investment, they signed the lease on the Short Pump location, moved into the space in September and within fours months had the store up and running. Even though the Richmond store just opened last week, Fazio has his sights on multiple locations.
He plans to open a store in Charlottesville by this spring or early summer and eventually expand to D.C., North Carolina and New York.
“We want to try and open four this year and four by next year,” he said, adding that he dreams of one day having 100.