Times of crisis can mean great opportunity, reports Duvalay’s sales & marketing director Liz Colleran (speaking to Furniture News for the November issue's Great British Beds feature) who says that evolving consumer demand has made her company’s offer more relevant than ever …
How did you respond to the lockdown?
Like many businesses in the UK, the initial lockdown created huge problems for us. We were set to move to a new £1.2m factory, along with hiring several new members of staff as we looked to continue our expansion and growth plans. Both of these had to be put on immediate hold, as well as having to furlough 90% of our employees, as sales simply fell away across all our markets and product portfolio when lockdown was announced in March.
However, in the months leading up to March, we had been working on a new bed collection, utilising our innovation and knowledge to develop the EasySleep Collection of mattresses [pictured]. A first for us, this latest collection is offered as a ‘mattress-in-a-box’, with three choices available for consumers to purchase. Standing by our heritage techniques, each one is handmade using only the finest materials, but at an affordable price.
Early April provided us with an opportunity to bring forward the launch of EasySleep, as we were able to offer contactless delivery and we saw huge demand from visitors to our website looking for this type of product.
By late April , we were able to bring back a significant part of our workforce, as demand for EasySleep rocketed. At a time when businesses were looking to save costs, we actually took the decision to invest in a dedicated PR and social media campaign around the launch, which has proved hugely beneficial in driving awareness and sales of our latest products.
One of the first things that companies cut is marketing, but we have found this to be counterproductive at a time when consumers are looking to invest in home products and will spend time researching and reading magazines and internet articles before making a decision.
… and the subsequent restart?
We have also been incredibly lucky that our other side of the business – sleep products for the leisure market – has also been booming since lockdown was lifted in June. A huge rise in staycations has led to a surge in sales of our luxury sleeping bag.
With a huge rise in demand for our products and the easing of lockdown, we took the decision that we could now complete the move to our new factory. We officially moved to the new four-acre site in late August, and it consolidated two existing sites that we had.
The extra space in the new factory has allowed us to move onto a double-shift pattern for most of our workers, to help meet demand. It has also helped us to ensure we have a Covid-19-safe workplace, with room for social distancing. Over the course of the next several months, we hope to be able to recruit from our local region.
We have also seen a shift in consumer behaviour since lockdown, as there has been a high spike in demand for our Wooltec mattress collection, as environment-conscious shoppers are drawn to the collection (which contains luxurious lambswool and recycled fibres made from plastic bottles). We do believe consumers have become more aware of the environment since reporting during Covid-19 highlighted the change in the planet as pollution reduced.
What’s the outlook for Duvalay?
Going into 2021, we remain cautiously optimistic about Duvalay’s future, as we have shored up our position and product portfolio to offer products that meet both current and future demand in a Covid and post-Covid world.
