Max Laarmann, the founder and MD of Emma Mattress, has joined the advisory board of the brand's holding company, Bettzeit. His role at Emma has been taken by Dr Dennis Schmoltzi (pictured), one of the founders and MDs of the group.
Dennis founded Bettzeit at the end of 2013 together with Manuel Müller. He draws on seven years’ experience as a consultant at McKinsey. His stated focus will be mastering the challenges an internationally operating company faces, as well as reaching the next stages of growth. Operationally, he will be supported by 10 country heads.
“I am very grateful for the invaluable work and impressive success that Max has brought us in the past three years," says Dennis. "We managed to disrupt the mattress industry with our digital concept. Shortly after we met, it became clear that we would want to work together. The idea for the Emma mattress as a D2C brand was born soon thereafter and was the perfect adage to the multi-brand online marketplace for mattresses that Bettzeit was running at the time.”
With more than 300,000 mattresses sold, Emma is one of Europe's top three bed-in-a-box mattress brands. Looking to 2019, Emma will have expanded to more than 20 countries.
“The last three years have been fantastic, with each year having been filled with more memorable achievements than the last," comments Max. "Being named one of Forbes’ 30 under 30 at the beginning of 2018 is definitely an honour that immediately springs to mind. I’m delighted that our ideas and concepts are so well received and that we’ve clearly hit a nerve in the online mattress industry – we definitely had the right idea at the right time.”
With his move to the board, Max will remain involved as a shareholder and advisor. “I’m passionate about turning ideas into reality and getting businesses up and running," he adds. "I’ve had a few of these ideas stuck in my head for a while now, so I’ve decided to dedicate myself to them now."
