Family-owned Sterling Furniture Group looks to fill CEO seat in 50th year in business

Gordon Mearns is credited with growing the family-owned firm to 600 staff working across ten branches, and overseeing the first steps of a major rebranding that will see most of its shops trading under the new Sterling Home brand. He will remain in position until the new CEO is appointed.

The group was founded in September 1973 after its founder George Knowles Senior saw the growing popularity of out-of-town retail parks in the US, and he converted an old mill in Tillicoultry in Clackmannanshire into his first furniture store. His son, George Knowles Junior, took over the company in 1985 and began expanding it beyond Scotland’s Central Belt. Mr Mearns joined the business in 1984 and became MD in 2003 following the death of George Knowles Jr aged 41.

The group, which acquired Forrest Furnishings in 2016, predicts a stable financial position in the year ahead, after growing pre-tax profits to £4.2 million in the year to February 28, 2022, from £2.5m a year earlier, on the back of turnover rising to £55.5m from £40.1m.

From left: Murray Graham, Gordon Mearns, Lesley Graham, Euan Graham and George Knowles. Picture: Mike Wilkinson.

Lesley Graham, Sterling’s buying director and the daughter of its founder, thanked Mr Mearns for his years of service, adding: “Now we’re actively recruiting a dynamic new CEO... to take our family’s business to the next level.” Members of the third generation of the family are now also working in the business, including Ms Graham’s two sons, Murray and Euan, and her nephew, George, who will shortly be appointed directors.