KPMG Australia and Family Business Association (AU) acknowledges the extraordinary contribution that A.H. Beard has made to Australia’s economic prosperity and success through manufacturing mattresses.
This Australian family-owned business proudly describes themselves as a “family of families” who have generationally been kept awake at night since 1899 by their passion to innovate a better night’s sleep for their customers.
Over the last 125 years, 5 generations of the Beard family have been committed to continuous innovation to ensure that they remain leaders in their field. Their extended business family of over 400 dedicated and highly skilled employees produce up to 10,000 mattresses each week, which are manufactured and sold in their 7 factories in Sydney, Melbourne, Hobart, Brisbane, Adelaide, Perth and Auckland, NZ.
Albert Garry Beard (Chairman, Managing Director and third generation of A.H. Beard) recently shared his thoughts with us around the high importance they place on prioritising innovation and forward thinking. From developing their Premium Sleep Wellness Program to their Board having a standing agenda item of focussing not just on their short-term business strategy but also on what good looks like 200 years from now, with the consequent benefits this long-term perspective has had for their family business as well as the broader Australian economy.
They have shown great passion for helping integrate immigrant families into the Australian work force by providing security and ‘ground up’ training fuelling their factory operations and expansion of their manufacturing capability. During our chat with Garry, he mentioned “Australia is one big community and has been built by family businesses” – it is abundantly clear that this family business is devoted to the Australian Family Business community.
Giving back to their community has certainly been embraced by this Australian Family Business by supporting a diversity of associations such as Beyond Blue, Soft Landing Mattress Recycling, the AIS, William Campbell College in Nowra, Stepping Stone House and the Jack Newton Challenge to name just a few.
To help grow and support family businesses in Australia, Garry feels that family businesses like his need to have a voice with policy makers considering the major contribution the Family Business sector makes to the Australian Economy and Workforce. Australian Family businesses in general are considered as small businesses, where in fact they are also medium and large with over 70% of Australian businesses being family owned and employing over half of Australia’s workforce.
Please join us in congratulating the A. H. Beard family on being a significant contributor to Australia’s economic resilience and success.
KPMG is a professional services firm with global reach, and deep expertise in audit and assurance, tax and advisory and in the family business sector.
