Big news in big fabric. Kravet, the venerable fifth-generation family-owned house of brands, has sold a majority stake to private investment firm Dunes Point Capital. As part of the deal, the Kravet family will retain a “significant” ownership position and continue to lead the Woodbury, New York–based fabric and furnishings company. Financial terms were not disclosed.
“We’ve been thinking about future plans, structuring things for multiple generations,” Cary Kravet, CEO of the brand, tells Business of Home. “[This was] the right time, the right partner, the right deal.”
Dunes Point Capital was founded in 2013 by Timothy White, a veteran of financial behemoth Blackstone. While the company began as a family office, it has raised approximately $1.5 billion over the past decade to acquire 102 companies, largely focusing on family- or founder-led businesses, including home industry brands Sonneman (bought in 2018) and Stanton (bought in 2021), both of which still operate with the founding family at the helm.
In recent years Dunes Point has adopted a strategy of purchasing a “platform” company in one industry—roofing, for example, or doors and hardware—then picking up synergistic brands to fill out a portfolio. A similar strategy could play out here, with Kravet as the central platform brand and forthcoming acquisitions built around it. “The belief is that that’s one of the big opportunities,” says Kravet, though he declined to speculate on potential buys.
At the company itself, the shift will be subtle. Kravet says that Dunes Point brings unique expertise to the table that could help the fabric and furnishings giant optimize its day-to-day operations, especially on the technology side. “They have a lot of in-house expertise in technology, whether it’s AI or data mining—they’re really good at that,” he says. “We’re an industry that’s rich in data; the question is how best to use it.”
However, Kravet stresses that day-to-day change will be minimal. “I think the only thing [designers] will notice is this article,” he says with a laugh. “If you’ve bought from [us] and trusted [us], well, the same people are there—there’s no change. … [Dunes Point Capital] is just going to try and help us get better.”
Success on that front will continue to be measured on “the stickiness of relationships,” says Kravet. “Our customers have so many different suppliers to choose from. How long they stick with us—the duration of the relationship, the strength of the relationship—is how they vote.”
Founded in 1918, Kravet is one of the older brands in the industry, and one of a very few—if not the only—that has remained in a single family’s hands across so many generations. Though selling a majority stake to a private investment firm may not change designers’ experience with the brand, it does represent a real shift for the Kravets themselves. On that point, Cary Kravet is philosophical.
“We definitely thought long and hard,” he says. “But I’m a big believer in change—whether we acknowledge it or just experience it; purposefully try to move it or feel like we’re victims of it. I don’t mind change. You just have to embrace it … [in] whatever you’re doing.”
