Cultivating his Creative Passion with Matahari Furniture
Matahari Furniture is more than just a business; it’s a testament to what can happen when you decide to take a chance on yourself and build a lasting investment by living out your creative passions. With just a
spark of an idea 19 years ago, owner and CEO of Matahari Furniture Jason Shelton, made the bold switch from a twelve-year journey in finance to the demanding life of an entrepreneur. And hasn’t looked back since.
Jason recalls how spending almost two decades of his early life living in Indonesia, where the family had migrated in the 1970s to follow his father’s engineering career, played a massive role in his formative years. “I learned a lot from my mother—she went to school for interior design, and when we moved to Indonesia, she furnished many homes there. She always had a passion for design and furniture and wanted to open a furniture company in Jamaica.”
Upon returning to Jamaica in 2004, Jason, alongside his parents, achieved that dream when they opened Matahari Furniture a year later. Despite the success it has gained over the years, it did not happen without its own unique set of challenges. “There was a period when we were somewhat concerned about some of the other businesses that were
getting into the (furniture) space. We made some decisions to follow what they were doing for similar products. It compromised what we had been known for, which was quality, value, and uniqueness. After that experience, we decided it would be best to stay in our lane and true to ourselves.”
The quality of their products, Jason says, comes from their care and dedication to ensuring they are receiving the best materials from their suppliers. Their supplier selection process is rigorous and works on constant research and referrals from other credible suppliers. “Our supply chain is probably the most important part of our business. Having good suppliers makes selling easier. We have spent the better part of 20 years selecting our supplier base. It’s a process that never ends and is always evolving and growing.”
The customer satistfaction/experience is also central to their success. “I think at our core (and sometimes to a fault) we stand behind the goods that we sell, which means that postsales support is as important if not more important than presale support. We have made many mistakes over the years, all of which we learned from and few that we repeat. When we do make a mistake, we are solution-driven and go above and beyond to ensure that the client doesn’t feel that they have had to compromise.”
