Sealy is one of the most recognisable names in mattress design and has been a major presence on the UK market for 50 years. Since it was established here in 1974 it has seen a number of owners and licensees. Today, Sealy UK forms part of a joint venture between Tempur Sealy International and Sealy of Australia, who acquired the company 2020. The previous owners were the Silentnight Group, who held the brand in the UK and Ireland since 1974. This Group was bought by venture capitalists in 2011.
This was a period of change and challenges as the group focused attention on the core Silentnight brand, until the private equity owners sought to consolidate the operations during the Covid pandemic. This would have meant closing Sealy UK’s 50-year-old Cumbria factory that had been operating since the company came to the UK. It was a decision that would change Sealy UK’s fortunes forever.
“It triggered the US licence holder to say that it compromised the position of Sealy in the UK, warranting a review of the licence,” says Mark Tuley, Chief Commercial Officer at Sealy UK. “They effectively repurchased the Sealy brand in the UK, in a joint venture operation between Sealy and one of the biggest Sealy companies, Sealy Australia.”
It proved to be an opportunity for both Sealy UK and Tuley, who after 24 years of working in the industry was offered the chance to move into the newly formed business and head up the sales operations of the firm.
Mattresses Never Sleep
One of the areas that lacked attention under Sealy UK’s private equity ownership was product development, and as Sealy UK came under the umbrella of its Australian counterpart, that was an area that saw immediate investment.
“In Australia, they have taken the brand into the premium sector, with a significant research and development facility,” Tuley points out. “They are not just developing new spring technology, but a totally different approach to constructing a mattress. They are addressing the issues that cause people to not sleep as well as they could.”
This investment means that today Sealy UK has a unique product offering, based on its own patented and defended intellectual property.
“It means that we can sell to retailers by providing consumers with a different choice,” Tuley says. “We can provide quality sleep through a different set of product features and benefits, giving retailers a new option to present to the customer.”
Sealy UK is also building a new offering to appeal to retailers and their customers.
“Our pitch to retailers is that we can help you not only grow your mattress segment but make it more profitable. It is a margin enhancing opportunity,” Tuley explains.
The offering that Sealy UK provides includes a unique spring geometry that offers improved support compared to competitors’ products. There is also a unique edge support system based on a rigid body welded to both sides of the mattress, averting the built-in obsolescence of many mattresses.
“Sitting on the edge of other mattresses can create a fair amount of movement and motion transfer, causing them to curve down at the edges,” Tuley says. ““We have a product that you can not just lie on, but sit and sleep right on the very edge. We even and we recommend that you sit on the edges!”
It is something we can immediately tell Tuley is passionate about. As we talk, it is clear he is frustrated that “educating the consumer” is often used as a stand-in for shortfalls in the product itself.
He tells us, “The industry is guilty of trying to get consumers to accept a product that does not perform as it should.”
Sealy UK attempts to fix these issues at the design stage, implementing comfort architecture, filling in the layers of the mattress and building it from the firmest layer up to the softest to create a robust product that will suffer minimum degradation over time.
“We build it in such a way that that is very durable,” Tuley says.
A New Range
Sealy UK today offers a new, innovative, premium-targeted product range, but moving into that segment from the firm’s existing offering was a challenge in itself.
“One of the things we had to do as part of that reinvention was to walk away from all the products that we used to make,” Tuley says. “We announced we would stop supply of our old products in 2021, and that was like walking off a cliff because we still did not have full distribution for our new range.”
It meant accepting a huge drop in turnover while still recovering from the consequences of Covid, all while still handling significant fixed costs. At the same time, while its existing product range had a had a lower retail price and therefor lower retailer margin, it was popular with retailers, and so ending that range would risk damaging relationships the company relied on.
“We had pushback from retailers we worked with for many years,” recalls Tuley. “We had to believe in what we were doing, and have the conviction to present our new range. It took significant determination and resilience to continue knocking on doors and selling the new product.”
It also meant enduring some tough times, but Tuley reports that over the last 12 months the company has turned a corner, experiencing consistent significant year-on-year growth.
“We have secured retailers who were doubters, and we are working with early adopters to grow floorspace, adding and increasing our market share,” Tuley explains.
It puts Sealy UK in a position that sees Tuley optimistic for the company’s future.
“It’s exciting!” he says. “We have actually got a clear path ahead of us. We are lucky enough to be following in the footsteps of the Australian business, which has done a lot of research and development and investment in the category. They have created a blueprint that we are following.”
2026 will see Sealy Australia launching another new spring technology, with Sealy UK looking to adopt that technology approximately five years later.
“We have launched a new range this year that was launched in Australia three years ago, and it is now the biggest segment of our business,” says Tuley. “We have added that next layer of premium products with new springs and comfort layers. We can see a path ahead and we will benefit from what Sealy Australia has learned doing the same thing.”
Sealy will continue to develop its unique, premium product proposition, taking it into new territory. In the UK this is being realised through a substantial investment in the Cumbrian factory its previous owners were looking to sell.
“We have made significant investments in machinery and people, and completely relayed the factory, even reconcreting the floors. However, we are going to outgrow that site, so now we are looking to find a new site,” Tuley says. “It will be a purpose-built mattress factory. That is something which hasn’t existed in the UK for decades. But it will remain in Cumbria, and we will work with the local communities, retaining the skills we have found and invested in there. That is something we are keen to preserve even as we move.”
The company has seen some sleepless nights that have been challenging for its staff and retail partners, but now Tuley is looking forward to seeing the payoff.
“We are reaping the rewards and taking back market share, growing in a sector that is flat at best,” he says. “I don’t know any competitors who are seeing the kind of growth that we are.”
