Simmons Bedding Company
Parent Serta Simmons Bedding, LLC | | |
Website | simmons |
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The Simmons Bedding Company is an American major manufacturer of
History
Early history
In 1870,
National business
Zalmon Simmons, Jr., who took charge of the business after his father's death in 1910, oversaw additional growth.
By 1919, growth was fast. In response, Simmons acquired manufacturing plants in San Francisco, California; Los Angeles, California; Montreal, Quebec; Toronto, Ontario; Winnipeg, Manitoba; Vancouver, British Columbia; Elizabeth, New Jersey; Seattle, Washington; and Atlanta, Georgia.[6] The following year, Simmons started a new sales arrangement. Instead of purchasing a mattress directly off the retail floor, customers could test the product on in-store samples, order a mattress through the retailer, and receive direct delivery within the next 24 hours from one of Simmons' 64 warehouses.[6][7] This arrangement reduced the need for retailers to own and store their own product inventories.[6] In 1923, Simmons moved its corporate headquarters to New York City.[7]
Equipment developed by Simmons in 1925 automated the process of coiling wire and inserting it into fabric sleeves, called encasements. This allowed mass production of
In 1940, Simmons introduced the Hide-A-Bed, a sofa that incorporates a fold-out spring and mattress that pull out to form a bed. This became one of the company's best known products and was manufactured until the 1980s.[7] During World War II, Simmons' facilities were diverted to military production, making cots, parachutes, bazooka rockets and other products.[6][7] By the post-war year of 1947, the company was back in the mattress business and started using advertising to associate its products with the Hollywood glamor of actresses including Dorothy Lamour and Maureen O'Hara.[6] A research and development facility was established in Munster, Indiana, in 1957, building upon pioneering studies on human sleep behavior that Simmons had sponsored in the 1930s. In 1958, the company became the first U.S. mattress maker to produce mattresses in king and queen sizes,[6] an innovation that was promoted as solving the "space battle in the bedroom".[8]
Era of corporate change
In 1975, the Simmons corporate headquarters moved to Atlanta, Georgia. Shortly thereafter, the company
Simmons underwent the first in a series of corporate mergers and acquisitions in 1979, when the company was acquired by
In the 1990s, a commercial for the Simmons Beautyrest featured a bowling ball being dropped on a Beautyrest mattress and a standard open-coil mattress to illustrate the company's claim that a person's nighttime movements are less likely to disturb a sleep partner if their mattress is a Beautyrest.[6][10] The bowling ball demonstration, which was popular with Simmons dealers, consumers, and industry experts, was revived in 2006.[10]
In 2003, Fenway Partners made the Sleep Country USA chain of retail stores a part of Simmons;
The company suffered financially under the successive ownership of multiple private equity firms and other private investors. The private equity owners extracted $750 million in profits out of Simmons, while the company's debt increased from $164 million in 1991 to $1.3 billion in 2009.
On October 2, 2012, private equity firm Advent International acquired a majority interest in AOT Bedding Super Holdings (now Serta Simmons Holdings, LLC), the parent company of Simmons and Serta. Ares Management and the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan continued to own a "significant" share of company equity.[3] At the time of the Advent acquisition, Simmons and Serta together held a 34 percent share of the U.S. mattress market.[2] Simmons and Serta retained separate sales, marketing, research and development, and merchandising departments, and continue to remain separate.[3]
In August 2018, Simmons Bedding's parent company Serta Simmons Holdings LLC announced a merger with online retailer Tuft & Needle to increase their online presence.[17]
By November 2020, the parent company had established a website to promote its renaming to Serta Simmons Bedding LLC, while still retaining the separate brands it owns (Serta, Simmons, Tuft & Needle and Beautyrest, now spun off from Simmons into a separate brand) and individual websites for them.[4]
On January 23, 2023, Serta Simmons Bedding filed for
References
- ^ Simmons Company - Reports Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2005 Results Archived 2006-09-22 at the Wayback Machine, Official release
- ^ a b Bartz, Diane (March 4, 2013). "Will antitrust cops recoil from king-sized mattress merger?". Chicago Tribune.
- ^ a b c Perry, David (August 5, 2012). "Advent to acquire majority interest in Serta, Simmons parent". Furniture Today.
- ^ a b "Serta Simmons Bedding." Serta Simmons Bedding, LLC. Retrieved on July 3, 2022.
- ^ "Serta Simmons Bedding files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection". 2023-01-24. Retrieved 2023-01-24.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m "Company History". Simmons Bedding Company. Archived from the original on December 10, 2008.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i "Simmons Company Records, 1892-2000". Archives Center, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution.
- ^ a b "Beautyrest Timeline". Simmons Bedding Company. Archived from the original on February 22, 2014. Retrieved February 4, 2014.
- ^ a b c d e Julie Creswell, Buyout Firms Profited as a Company’s Debt Soared, The New York Times, October 4, 2009
- ^ a b "Simmons Launches New Bowling Ball Advertising Campaign at Las Vegas Furniture Market; Advertisements Will Reintroduce Simmons' Iconic Bowling Ball Demonstration to Illustrate the Benefits of Motion Separation". BusinessWire.com. January 30, 2006.
- ^ Levesque, John (August 21, 2009). "Sleep Country jingle has been waking up the Northwest for 18 years". SeattlePI.com.
- ^ "Simmons selling Sleep Country for $55M". Puget Sound Business Journal. Seattle. July 26, 2006.
- ^ "Simmons Buys Comfor-Pedic Line". BedTimes Magazine. August 2007.
- ^ "Simmons Announces Restructuring Plan" (PDF). Simmons Bedding Company. September 25, 2009. Archived from the original (PDF) on January 3, 2010.
- ^ "Simmons plans to file for bankruptcy protection", Physorg.com (Via AP), September 25, 2009, retrieved September 27, 2009
- ^ "Simmons to file Chapter 11, be sold", Sacramento Business Journal, September 25, 2009, retrieved September 27, 2009
- ^ "Serta Simmons And Tuft & Needle Announce Merger". Mattress Clarity. 2018-08-23. Retrieved 2018-10-29.
- ^ "Serta Simmons Bedding files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection". 2023-01-24. Retrieved 2023-01-24.