The Molly and Friends Story

Molly and Friends is located in the north central town of Gainesville, Florida and has been since its beginnings out of the Bartron's garage in 1997. Rick and Trayce founded the cat furniture company in that year and moved the operation to its home on 6th Street in early 1998. Trayce's favorite cat Molly was the namesake of the company and impetus for its beginnings.

This location is where their brand of homemade and handmade quality cat furniture started catching the eyes of passersby who noticed the furniture out on the front porch as they drove past. People would finally stop in and say, “I've been driving past for weeks now and just had to stop in to see what you were doing… Is this cat furniture! I thought so… I have two cats… this is nice stuff… I want one like this… Can you add a level up here?” And so on. It went on like this for the next couple years, with people stopping in and telling their friends, and those friends stopping in then telling their friends about the little cat furniture shop up on 6th Street. It was in 1998, the first year of Molly and Friends existence, that a college kid named Tom Grant walked down the street (he lived just up the block) to the new tenants of the 6th Street building and inquired about a job.

By late 1999, the Barton's had decided to try and sell their upstart business. It wasn't making money and times were tough. No one was jumping at the opportunity, though Tom starting thinking that since he was now finished with school and still worked making the cat furniture he might as well be the owner. He decided to arrange the purchase of the company from his mentors and keep the Molly and Friends dream alive. He knew better than anyone what the recipe for success was in crafting the high quality furniture Molly and Friends name carried. He also figured that if he could sell 10 big units a day, the company could be sustainable. They were selling just under two a day when he took over.

Over the next months, Tom learned from the Bartrons how to build their high quality brand of cat furniture. He built the handmade furniture for them and the customers, becoming a right hand man around the shop. He also watched patron after patron leave the small shop extremely happy and satisfied as a customer. This made an impression on him, both from seeing the importance of customer satisfaction and also the reality that people really liked the Molly and Friends work and that there was a viable place for the business to continue it's effort - there were customers!

So, at the turn of the century, Tom was the owner of Molly and Friends. He had moved from new employee to owner in 19 months time. Now, the effort included moving outside of Gainesville to bring this hometown cat furniture to the regions both nearby and a thousand + miles away. It was decided that growing the customer base as a wholesaler and focusing our sales to retail outlets like pet shops and internet resellers would be the most effective means towards growing the business and spreading our effort outward. This way, Molly and Friends could focus our work as the manufacturer and let the retailers do the selling. Out of this outward effort was born the “Molly Mission”. It just seemed right that Molly and Friends be the standard and choice for premium handmade cat furniture anywhere cat furniture was sold.

This mindset remains the same today as it did five years ago. Wherever cat furniture is sold, Molly and Friends believes that a high-end, high quality and affordable option should be provided to the customer. Molly and Friends premium handmade cat furniture is this option. We have been building real furniture that fits beautifully into any home since 1997. The furniture happens to be for cats and carries a tradition of excellence our customers deserve and enjoy!