Note: This article is part of a series providing updates from companies that received an EDTIF tax credit. Our office has an ongoing partnership, through a post-performance incentive, with the company. The story is the company’s narrative and may not reflect the methodology of standardized legislative reporting requirements published in our Annual Report. We do not certify or independently verify any company’s data as part of this ‘Where are they now?’ series.
Sam and Kacie Malouf didn’t realize their adventure as business partners and a married couple was just beginning when Sam was a graduate student at Utah State University and Kacie worked at a buffet restaurant. She would come home from long shifts, and Sam would scrape food off her apron. She pitched Sam the idea to replace her server’s income with the idea of selling home furnishings on the internet.
Several years later, Malouf Companies™, once a premium retailer of sheets, bedding, and one of the first-ever boxed mattresses that could be delivered right to residential doorsteps, has now expanded into six states and multiple industries. The dynamic duo hired their first employee after seven years, finally accepting they couldn’t fill every role in the company. Over the next 10 years, hiring doubled, tripled, and then exploded, with a current headcount of more than 1,200 employees.
“Really hard work and great people have gotten us this far,” said Kacie Malouf. “When Sam and I look back on the early days, it’s a little amazing to see our transformation. It makes me wonder what the next 18 years will look like.”
Malouf Companies is headquartered in Cache Valley, and the founders are keeping it that way. Kacie said, “We can’t imagine any future where we leave Cache Valley. It’s our home.” Acquisitions of Utah-based businesses — Impact Suite™, Downeast™, Tamarak Capital™, and Citrus Pear™ — diversified the organization’s scope and strengthened its roots in Utah.
The company structure has evolved into six key categories: consumer products, services, technology, retail, logistics, and venture. Distribution centers in Utah, California, Ohio, Texas, North Carolina, and South Carolina support daily sales of over 30,000 lifestyle and wellness products online and in all major stores, over two products a second in 58 different countries.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, the investment in diversification helped Malouf™ grow even more. Since May 2020, they added 140 new positions in their corporate office to facilitate the boom in home furnishings and wellness products.
CEO Sam Malouf said, “During the pandemic, our product lineup matched what customers were hungry for. We designed the company to be nimble, and we were able to pivot and meet demand while continuing to grow. We were even able to bring three new businesses into the fold in 2020, which felt pretty remarkable in all the uncertainty, and they are incredible additions to our team.”
As the state’s largest Certified B Corporation®, much of the company’s work funds the Malouf Foundation™, a 501(c)3 that has the mission to confront child sexual exploitation, specifically sex trafficking and online abuse. The company focuses on using its business as a force for good by serving a triple-bottom line of people, planet, and profits.
The three initiatives of the Foundation focus on:
- Educating individuals with free community resources and teaching them to identify exploitation and how to help survivors
- Promoting healing by funding and implementing comprehensive aftercare services
- Ensuring justice for survivors through child advocacy programs
Malouf’s value-driven atmosphere helped the company clinch the No. 5 spot of Glassdoor’s Best Places to Work in 2020, with Sam Malouf named as one of the highest-rated CEOs at a 98% employee approval rating. The company also received two tax credit incentives from the Governor’s Office of Economic Opportunity: a $14.4 million incentive in May of 2020 and a $56 million incentive in August of 2021.
“We’re a company with values, which matches the energy of the state,” said Jeff Steed, the company’s Chief Legal Officer. “Our business and philanthropic partnerships are made with like-minded companies and individuals so we can work together to make Utah better every day.”
To learn more about Malouf Companies, visit Maloufcompanies.com or email [email protected]. To learn more about the work of the Malouf Foundation or to get involved, visit malouffoundation.org.
