With a spring in its step, mattress major eyes global markets

The Indian mattress industry, including coir, foam and spring mattresses is worth Rs 6,000 cr. The spring mattress category is estimated to be worth Rs 500 crore Madhavan tells us, “We have close to 57 per cent market share in this segment and are the leaders in this space, having disrupted the market 12 years ago. 

My colleagues from Kurl-on G Sankar Ram and P Manjunath joined me on this endeavour as between the three of us, we have close to 90 years-experience in the mattress industry.” 

“When we started our company in 2005-2006 in Coimbatore, the mainstream market was dominated by rubberised coir and foam mattresses. Spring mattresses were considered luxury products. We began by making international quality spring mattresses in collaboration with Restonic Corp, USA, the fourth largest mattress maker globally. And we brought the price point down to an affordable range.” 

Talking about the disruption, he says, “When we began our journey, the revenues were in the range of Rs 4 cr. Peps has now grown into a company with Rs 270-Rs 280 cr revenue. At the start, we were among a handful of players. Today, there are as many as 15 brands in the spring mattress category, which accounts for 77 per cent of the global consumer preference.” On the retail footprint of the brand, Madhavan says, “We have about 6,500 dealer networks and 225 distributor networks. 

Our own format of shop is called Great Sleep Store, a full-fledged experience zone designed like a bedroom, where customers can try out a mattress before buying it. We have 15 such stores in the state, which are part of a 100 stores network across Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka, AP, Goa and Maharashtra. We are thinking of increasing the count of these stores pan India.” 

Revenue-wise, 80% of the income is generated from South India, while the rest comes from the west. The company has also diversified into the institutional segment where it serves reputed hospitality companies, including star hotels with the brand Hypnos. This comprises 10 per cent of the sales. The company’s mattresses are priced between Rs 9,000 and Rs 1.5 lakh. 

Madhavan says, “Including our main unit in Coimbatore, we have 4 factories, in Delhi, Pune and Kolkata. We work on the hub and spoke model and have decentralised our manufacturing. As transportation is an issue, we manufacture basic mattresses in Coimbatore and fabricate the rest in our other factories. We manufacture close to 1,000 mattresses a day while our capacity is between 1,200 to 1,300 mattresses in Coimbatore. 

From the beginning of next year, we plan on some capacity expansion.” Regarding the future, Madhavan says, “PU foam based products are also on our radar. We have diversified into accessories such as comforters, duvets, pillows and covers as well. 

We spent around Rs 10 crore last year on the end to end bedroom products. We also invested Rs 25 cr on PU foam innovation. As the licensees for the manufacturing and marketing of Restonic brand for SAARC nations, we are now considering international expansion and are selling our products in Nepal. Sri Lanka is the next international location we are looking at.”