: product, brand and culture. “The three big ones also underpin most underperformance in retail – we’ve seen them before,” Callard told Inside Retail. “Product – the assortment just has to be right. In the interiors and fashion space, relevance is everything and a lot of brands – particularly heritage brands – lose that relevance, it’s a kiss of death.” Alongside its products, the brand undertook a major repositioning backed by Greenlit Brands with an arguably most significant pillar, culture. “This has been at the core of the turnaround—who we brought in, who we kept, and who we said goodbye to… One of the first things we did back in 2019 was we told everyone how much we were losing, and what needed to be done to turn it around. That can be confronting, but how else do you get buy-in if everyone’s in the dark?” Callard also highlighted Freedom’s digital maturity, with nearly 25 per cent of revenue now generated online. “We see ourselves as a mature omnichannel retailer. With stores and the store experience at the heart of our brand.” During the sale process, interest in the business was high—something Callard sees as validation of the transformation. “Interest through the process was vibrant and robust… It was a highly competitive process. Freedom in 2025 is a very attractive brand, on a strong trajectory of growth and profit, with lots of upside still to be realised,” Callard said.  Between FY19 and FY25, Freedom shifted from a $45 million EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation) loss to a forecast just shy of $20 million in profit, highlighting one of the most significant turnarounds in recent Australian retail. Matt Newell, CEO of the creative and strategic agency for retailers, The General Store, reflected on Freedom’s transformation over the past five years, dubbing it one of the best turnarounds of a heritage Australian brand in recent history. The General Store’s strategic and creative initiatives significantly contributed to Freedom’s transformation into a design-led brand appealing to style-conscious Australian consumers. “Five years ago the research told us Freedom was marching towards the cliff of irrelevance. It was lost in the middle market. It felt too expensive to the value market and not credible to the premium market,” Newell recalled. Newell’s insight speaks to the remarkable evolution Freedom has undergone since private equity firm Greenlit Brands took full ownership in 2018. Following years of underperformance, the business re-emerged with a renewed design focus, sharper price positioning, and improved profitability, culminating in a highly contested bidding process during the sale. “Today, it’s carved out a very clear positioning at the top of the middle market, with serious design cred and a strong value proposition. The business is highly profitable and when Greenlit took it to the market they had a highly contested bidding process with a final valuation that exceeded all expectations,” Newell added.  Freedom’s road to renewal: 2018: Greenlit Brands announces plans to restructure and divest its general merchandise businesses. Freedom becomes a core part of the group’s furniture portfolio. 2020: Amid pandemic challenges, Freedom begins a significant brand overhaul. This includes new store formats, an elevated product range and a refreshed visual identity. 2022: Returned to profitability under the leadership of CEO Blaine Callard. The company’s turnaround was attributed to strategic investments in digital infrastructure and a renewed focus on design-led product 2024: Freedom is officially listed for sale by Greenlit Brands. Interest is strong, reflecting a broader resurgence of the Australian furniture retail sector. June 2025: Amart acquires Freedom in a deal that creates a retail powerhouse with almost 120 stores across Australia and New Zealand. For Amart, the move is a future-focused investment in capability and customer experience.  “This acquisition reflects the increasing importance of capability and clear brand differentiation in Australian furniture retail,” said Amart CEO Lee Chadwick. “Freedom is a design-led brand with strong customer recognition and a significant digital footprint. Amart brings a national footprint, 50-plus year history and proven supply chain capability,” he added.  Together, the brands now form a formidable group capable of competing not only on scale but also on strategic complementarity. “There is very limited overlap between the two businesses in terms of product range, price point and customer base. That gives us the opportunity to grow the combined group strategically by expanding our total addressable market without compromising brand clarity,” said Chadwick. A pillar of Australian furniture retail While Australian furniture retailers such as Nick Scali, King Living and Coco Republic expand internationally, Amart’s acquisition signals a different kind of growth focused on local dominance through synergy and scale. “This acquisition is consistent with that trend. It is a growth-led decision that allows Amart and Freedom to retain their distinct brands whilst unlocking operational benefits,” Chadwick explained. By maintaining separate brand identities, the group aims to deliver a dual-market strategy Amart focusing on accessible value and Freedom anchoring the upper middle segment through curated lifestyle offerings. “This is a complementary partnership rather than a merger of similar businesses. Amart and Freedom each have a strong identity and serve different segments of the market,” Chadwick said. For customers, the impact of the acquisition will be mostly invisible in the short term.  “Over time, the benefits of this integration will become slightly more visible… with improved product availability, more efficient delivery, better lead times, enhanced quality and ultimately improved value,” Chadwick added.  Looking ahead The future of the new Amart-Freedom group lies in how well it can leverage back-end synergies while maintaining clear, compelling brand narratives for two very different customer bases. “It’s particularly impressive when you consider this was done in the most volatile market in recent history, including covid, inflation and a hyper-proliferation of online competition,” Newell noted. As the dust settles on the deal, it becomes clear that Amart’s acquisition is about growth and also the readiness to compete on all fronts including design, price, delivery and digital.  A readiness to reshape how Australians furnish their homes and what they expect from a furniture retailer this year and beyond.