The Oscar group was started in 1958 By Leo Op de Coul as an upholstery business in Horsham, Victoria.
Oscar Furniture
In 1981 Leo and his son Anthony made the move into furniture manufacturing under the name of ‘Oscar Furniture’ which produced high quality lounge suites for the Australian domestic market.
With Anthony in the director’s role, the father and son ran the business together for 25 years before Leo settled into retirement.
In the early 2000’s Anthony recognised that low cost imports were threatening the traditional furniture market and transformed Oscar Furniture into a leader of lift chair design and specialised manufacturing for the health industry, while continuing with Australian Manufacturing to the highest quality standards.
Today Oscar Furniture is best known for it’s highly customisable ‘made to measure’ lift and recline chairs, the ‘Hudson’ and ‘Barwon’ (Formerly the ‘Brumby’ and ‘Menningham’). These models give the customer the ability to individually increase and decrease each of the critical dimensions of the chair or add on a long list of modifications and accessories in a cost-effective manner.
In addition to the two flagship models Oscar has developed a range of specialised ‘High Care’ chair models, most notably the Vertical lift, M5 bariatric and B24 mobile recliners. Each of which cater to each unique who’s needs can’t met by generic chairs offered by our competitors.
Oscar Furniture prides itself on continual product development based primarily on feedback from our customers and healthcare professionals. Oscar is always eager to work closely with customers to ensure the unique needs of every client are being met with an innovative solution.
Oscar Building
Prior to joining the family business Anthony was working as a registered builder for many years. His expertise in Just in time (JIT) manufacturing and construction made the Oscar Groups decision to expand into modular building systems an obvious one, and in 2000 Oscar Building was started (originally under the name of Grampians Homes).
Now third generation Matthew Op de Coul is leading the company in research and development of innovative construction techniques for factory-build modular and transportable buildings. Head over to oscarbuilding.com.au to find out more.
Country Care Horsham
In 2015 the Oscar Group opened the Country Care Horsham show room. Country Care is a provider of Healthcare and rehabilitation equipment to the general public and healthcare facilities, selling Oscar furniture’s range alongside a variety of other products from the Peak Care group, and other innovative suppliers.
This retail front gives Oscar Furniture a unique insight into challenges and needs of the Healthcare and rehabilitation equipment industry which allows it to continually develop the product range with feedback from customers and healthcare professionals.
VersoTela Fabrics
In early 2009 Oscar Furniture began to import its own ranges of fabric.This move was in an effort to create a point of difference to competitor products, increase control over quality & supply, and ensure customers were getting value for money. The fabric ranges proved to be a bit hit with most customers choosing the in house brand over other fabric houses, after 5+ years in the field the fabrics had also proven to be extremely durable with a suitably low rate of failure.
In 2017 with support from other Australian Manufacturers; K-Care Healthcare Solutions & R & R Healthcare equipment the VersoTela Brand was born. With this new branding came a new range of vinyls (OsGuard) tailored to meet a healthcare spec (fire resistance, anti-microbial, anti-fungal & durable). These ranges were rolled out as available on all Oscar products as well as select K-care & R&R Products.
Late in 2018 The Shann Group, a nation wide distributor of components for furnishing & associated industries partnered up to distribute a limited range of barrier textiles to Australian companies manufacturing locally and in Asia.