In 1955 James J. Jefferies moved his small family to Orange County, California where he brokered land in the primarily agricultural community. Some of his biggest deals were with Carl Segerstrom, who’s company went on to amass one of the largest real estate empires in California, including the development of South Coast Plaza (the most exclusive and highest grossing mall in the United States). James recalls talking business with Carl on the porch of the Segerstrom farmhouse while his children ran through the bean fields in their overalls. James was ambitious and always looking for new opportunities, and in 1965 he stumbled upon a furniture store in Santa Ana with a for sale sign in the window. He negotiated the purchase of the store that same day, taking out a loan against his house. His hope was to make an extra $100 a week to support his growing family. The store turned out to be far more successful than he anticipated, so he opened additional locations in Westminster, Costa Mesa, Huntington Beach, and Corona. He also opened a second Santa Ana location in one of the busiest shopping centers in the area. This store was a mammoth 30,000 sq ft. building located next to a Sears department store. However, James was so busy with his other businesses that he had to have his 15 year old son Donny run it. Donny called his father with questions as they arose and grew the store year after year while still in high school. In the late 1960’s, James was still looking for opportunities, so he decided to become the first person to open a furniture store in South Orange County. It was located next to the the 5 freeway in San Juan Capistrano. He also decided to open a store in Mission Viejo which was one of the fastest growing areas in the county. The only problem was there weren’t yet any shopping centers in the area. But that wouldn't stop James. He went searching and found a dirt plot on the corner of the only two major roads in the city: Alicia and Jeronimo. He called the owners of the land and told them he was interested in building a furniture store. Within one year, Mission Viejo’s first major shopping center was built on that corner, all centered around James' 20,000 square foot furniture store. Over the next 20 years James pioneered new ways of selling furniture and became so renowned in the Los Angeles furniture scene that reporters from as far as Japan were writing articles about him. In the mid 1980’s James decided to retire and passed the business on to his son Donny. Donny continued to expand the business and opened a sofa factory to enhance the quality and variety of their products. But by the early 1990’s the furniture industry was bearing a heavy load from a poor economy and bad recession. In order to solve this problem, Donny created a new business model. He reasoned that since he now had his own factory, he was at a distinct advantage of being able to create any type of sofa a customer requested. So he eliminated the costly overhead and inventories of his huge stores and opened small warehouses with only the most popular sofa styles in them. Now he would place an order for the goods when the customer bought instead of carrying the cost of the extensive inventories and high store rents. He believed his customers would see past the small showrooms to the inherent value of his products. As it turned out he was right. This ingenuity allowed him to flourish while most of his competitors went bankrupt. In 2006 Donny passed the family business on to his son Ryan, who while in high school had already started his own furniture showrooms in Oceanside, Corona, Torrance, and Los Angeles. The following three years would turn out to be the most difficult economic environment since the Great Depression, yet in that time, Ryan doubled Sofa Craft’s sales and consolidated the company into their current single showroom, which despite being a 2,000 square foot, “no frills” warehouse, now outsells the 30,000 sq. ft Sofa Craft showrooms of the past. These sort of cost saving techniques are what allow Sofa Craft to offer their customers such incredible value. Today, Sofa Craft manufactures thousands of custom sofas every year at their Los Angeles factory. These sofas are shipped all over the country and occasionally the world. Over the years they have sold to everyone from the legendary actor John Wayne to the critically acclaimed "Oprah Winfrey Show", and have frequently been featured on HGTV. In the future Ryan hopes to pass Sofa Craft on to the fourth generation of his own children.
