Humble Beginning

Serving as a U.S. Marine, Paul Saunders learned the value of a comfortable bed.

So after seven years of sleeping wherever he happened to land, he returned to his native Evansville and combined his affection for fine linens with a longtime love of e-commerce. The result was eLuxurySupply, a grassroots bath and bedding company launched from the garage of his home.

“I guess I just got tired of sleeping in the woods,” he teases.

Saunders says he wanted to provide online shoppers with quality bedding but at an affordable price. Tired of what he called “smoke and mirrors” e-commerce, he was looking for an honest product, he says, one that could “disrupt” the online market — in a good way, of course — and be successful and grow.

And grow, it has.

From its humble beginnings in 2009, eLuxurySupply has grown exponentially, 14,000 percent over the last three years. It generated $18.2 million in revenue in 2014 alone

Inc. 500 Magazine last year named eLuxurySupply the 15th fastest growing, privately owned business in the country.

That growth continued in 2015, Saunders says, and earlier this year he and his business partner, Jeff Cox, the company’s vice president of e-commerce, announced a major expansion. The company will be expanding its headquarters on Kotter Avenue by moving its Martin, Tennessee-based manufacturing operations — a company eLuxurySupply purchased in early 2015 — to Evansville, creating more than 100 new jobs over the next four years.

eLuxurySupply now manufactures and sells dozens of products, including cotton bed sheets duvet covers, pillow cases, mattress toppers, goose down comforters, bath robes, towel sets, and even soap, and a lot of hard work is only part of their tremendous success.

Growth in the e-commerce industry, the men say, comes with being willing to take risks and being flexible to an ever-changing market

They do not plan to limit their potential with a traditional five-year plan.

“One of the great things about e-commerce is that it disrupts nature,” says Cox. “It changes business models and creates opportunities. We’ve got several things on the drawing board right now, but this industry is so rapidly developing that there are new opportunities every day, ones you wouldn’t even dream of.”

In April, eLuxurySupply acquired a majority stake in Sleepmade, a Mississippi-based manufacturer and distributor of advanced sleep products. “The acquisition of Sleepmade, and their ‘bed in a box’ model allows us to expand our addressable market and to continue providing our customers with the high quality bedding products,” says Cox.

One aspect of their future they do know, however, is that it will stay right here in Evansville.

“This is our home,” says Cox. “This is where we have chosen to raise our families … we’re committed to this area, and we want to continue to bring jobs here.”

For more information about eLuxurySupply, call 800-977-7433 or visit eluxurysupply.com.

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