If you visited an industry exhibition this autumn, the chances are you encountered at least one brand belonging to one of the UK’s largest furniture manufacturers, the Airsprung Group. Headquartered in Trowbridge, Wiltshire, and boasting an unbroken heritage that dates back to 1870, Airsprung has proved its ability to adapt to the evolving demands of the market time and again. Today, it faces new challenges – but it does so from a position of strength, discovers Paul Farley in this exclusive article …
Operating from sites in Trowbridge, Chorley, Hastings and Bristol, covering approximately 125,000 sqm – incorporating the UK’s biggest mattress production facility – the Airsprung Group employs around 600 staff and turns over some £50m each year.
Beneath the company umbrella are some of the sector’s best-known bed, mattress and upholstery brands – Airsprung Beds, Gainsborough Beds and Sofa Beds, Cavendish Upholstery, Swanglen Furnishings, Collins and Hayes and Hush-a-Bye – plus a foam converter, Airofreem, graphics agency Arena Design, and numerous white label brands and contract divisions. Airsprung’s breadth of capabilities makes it one of the trade’s most comprehensive operators.
“Businesses can go one of two ways,” says the group’s chief executive, Tony Lisanti. “They can focus on one element of an industry – for example, top-end beds – and do that very well, because that’s all they do. Or they can diversify. The group’s strategy even before I joined 12 years ago was to run a number of businesses, all in slightly different parts of the marketplace, so that a problem or downturn in one area wouldn’t completely compromise the whole.”
The most significant development over the last decade has probably been the transition of the Airsprung Beds brand to the digital market – a decisive move which signalled the group’s preference for specialisation.
“It was a conscious decision to specialise Airsprung Beds as a mass-market brand for online and omnichannel retailers,” explains Tony, “and, volume-wise, we hitched our wagon to the right horse – but it clearly had its challenges.
“It was a conscious decision to specialise Airsprung Beds as a mass-market brand for online and omnichannel retailers, and, volume-wise, we hitched our wagon to the right horse”
“Seven or eight years ago, Airsprung Beds was producing and selling for the independent sector, for the mass market, the digital and catalogue people, and the contract market – all from the same facilities and all under the same management team. Over the last five or six years, those elements were split into three separate business centres, so we now have a different factory that produces for each.
“Rather than having one business deal with three or four strands of the sector, we’ve become much more specialised in different areas, and that strategy has been highly successful.”
Each brand therefore operates quasi-autonomously through dedicated sales and marketing, management and product development teams. This means they are better able to react to buying trends and adjust marketing approaches in line with sector-specific demands, without becoming mired in the corporate bureaucracy that any company of Airsprung’s size naturally generates.
Of course, these teams are not operating completely alone. A formidable infrastructure exists behind each specialised division, offering numerous economies of scale. At its core, the group’s financial and administrative hub in Trowbridge serves every brand, however geographically distant. The bulk of essential services such as final QA, logistics, retailer training and purchasing take place at the group’s headquarters, alongside its lucrative foam conversion and marketing operations.
Naturally, synergies arise as a result of the group’s well-established presence in the market. Notable opportunities arose after Airsprung bought headboard specialist Swanglen out of liquidation two years ago. “When Swanglen went under, we were going to be left high and dry for a headboard supplier, and we bought the brand partly for that reason,” says Tony.
“Over the past few years, bed manufacturers have been supplying the mattress, the bedstead, the headboard and the frame in one package – cutting the traditional headboard manufacturers out of the equation. Swanglen now have access to all of the bed ranges within the Airsprung group, and they’re starting to see the benefits.
“Swanglen was able to make a joint pitch with Airsprung Beds for some sizeable chunks of new business, because we’re now able to provide a one-stop shop. It’s been a very good investment for both of us.”
Retailers too enjoy the benefits, as many of the cost savings of integrated management and production are passed down. “We can afford to offer retailers a more competitive bundle price because we’re gaining new business from many of these products,” says Tony. “They also get an administrative benefit because they don’t have to deal with several suppliers.”
In short, diversity and scale generate opportunity, and as Airsprung Group’s annual turnover is set to top the £50m mark soon, it’s clear that many of these opportunities are being exploited. According to Tony, the group’s bed businesses are “in pretty good shape”, and making progress with them is “more about evolution than revolution”.
The group’s upholstery businesses present a greater challenge. New management and product directions at Collins and Hayes, plus a repositioning of the manufacturing for the Cavendish business, has demanded significant investment and attention – yet there are synergies at work here too.
“We made a strategic decision nearly two years ago to turn Cavendish’s Chorley factory into a mass-market upholstery manufacturer,” explains Tony. “We’re investing a great deal in R&D and prototyping, simply because the catalogue and digital retailers demand a very high turnover of new models. We’re using the same techniques, systems and structures that we’ve developed over the last 10 years for Airsprung Beds.
“Swanglen was able to make a joint pitch with Airsprung Beds for some sizeable chunks of new business, because we’re now able to provide a one-stop shop”
“Today, the Chorley facility supplies those retailers only, and the Cavendish Upholstery brand, tailored to bricks-and-mortar independents instead, is manufactured in the Collins and Hayes factory in Hastings.
“Effectively, we’re maximising and driving the manufacturing skillset on that site to produce a terrific product for the independent sector. Conversely, the Chorley factory isn’t trying to be a jack of all trades – its production isn’t compromised by making products on the side for the independent market, which has a very different set of dynamics.”
Collins and Hayes has undergone changes of a different nature. The appointment of Matt O’Flynn as manager has heralded a fresh round of investment in staff, product development and refurbishment, in a bid to steer the brand in the right direction.
“Collins and Hayes was unlucky that two of its biggest customers – Selfridges and Harrods – had major changes in strategy and came out of furniture,” explains Tony. “No-one saw it coming, and it hit the business hard. Recovering from that is going to take a bit of time, but there’s no doubt that bringing Matt in has completely revitalised the business – the whole mood there is very positive. When I look at the number of new customers the brand is attracting, I couldn’t be more pleased.”
The latest products from both ranges were on display at the group’s new showroom in Long Eaton during the Long Point exhibition in September, as well as at selected buying group shows – but the most important fixture for the group as a whole is the NBF Bed Show, Airsprung’s principal platform for unveiling new product.
“The Bed Show is an excellent forum that has improved with every passing year,” says Tony, who has been an executive director of the NBF for 12 years, and adds that, of all the group’s brands, Gainsborough Beds – which also enjoys a presence in the Long Eaton showroom – has benefited most from the event. This year’s show saw Gainsborough Beds unveil storage beds in natural materials, and high-end, no-turn mattresses.
“Historically, when manufacturers have gone no-turn, they’ve done it because they want to take cost out of the product without damaging the sleeping surface – basically, all they’ve done is taken materials out of one side,” says Tony.
“All of the top-end mattresses out there are incredibly heavy. They are delightful beds, with thousands of springs and tonnes of filling – but the vast majority of consumers can’t turn them over anyway! We’ve been working on a top-end bed with all the fillings that’s genuinely no turn – not simply a manufacturing short cut.”
The group also introduced an ottoman that FIRA has described as “one of the safest products of its type on the market”. Says Tony: “One of the issues with ottomans is the danger of entrapment in the mechanisms on the side – and, conversely, the fact that if you don’t have a mattress on the top of it and it lifts, it can take your head off if you’re stood next to it!
“Our new model features a membrane of elasticated fabric so children – unless they’re really determined – can’t put their fingers inside. To restrict the speed of the mechanism’s lift, we’ve included a removable hook, clip and strap that has to be physically undone first. It’s the safest ottoman in the marketplace.”
Gainsborough Sofa Beds, one of the largest sofa bed suppliers in the UK, revealed a new range, the development of which has been overseen by a multi-disciplinary new product development (NPD) group consisting of 12 experts from across the group’s sales, marketing, production, purchasing and finance departments.
“Years ago, the sales guys would just look at a product and come up with some new ones,” says Tony, “but it is much more integrated now. We carry out market research to see where the gaps are, what the issues are, where there might be a problem with one of our – or a competitor’s – products, and then develop new models from there.”
Although a small business, the next brand, Hush-a-Bye, fulfils an important – if localised – function, delivering a high level of service, seven-day deliveries and bespoke manufacture. “The Hush-a-Bye factory makes specialised products for the more discerning retailers in the mid-market sector,” says Tony. “There’s a lot of side stitching involved!”
Although a distinctly online-facing brand, Airsprung Beds was present at the show, where it engaged the larger national retailers. Airsprung Beds has launched a fully-integrated transactional website for its contract customers, enabling them to source contract-spec product directly from the manufacturer.
“In terms of supply chain, we’re seen by many retailers as the best-integrated bed supplier in the country”
“Across the group, we supply some of the national and international hotel groups with beds and sofa beds,” says Tony. “We’ve built a very strong relationship with the Intercontinental Hotel Group, and that’s going from strength to strength.”
Lastly, there was Swanglen, which introduced a low-level divan base, an upholstered frame and an ottoman, all within a freshly-presented stand.
Tony describes the Bed Show as “the best thing to happen to the bed industry”. There, the group also further promoted a new initiative, the Airsprung Quality Pledge.
Following on from his input into the development of the NBF’s Code of Practice quality assurance scheme – the Airsprung Group’s members were among the first to be certified – Tony has helped his group devise its own pledge, a further guarantee against re-used fillings and poor materials. Airsprung’s own seal of approval serves to bolster its upholstery brands where the NBF’s bed-specific guarantee cannot – and provides an extra fillip in establishing consumer confidence.
“It’s hugely important to me that the retailer and the consumer have complete confidence that every step is taken to ensure that they get what they pay for,” says Tony, “and that what we are selling is clean, hygienic and safe – unlike some of what’s out there.”
Despite the challenges of orienting its upholstery brands – and some difficulty in recruiting staff to meet the demands of expansion – Airsprung Group is on the up, and is making significant investments across the board to ensure it remains this way. Last year alone, the group invested nearly £1m in plant and machinery – including a second mattress roller and new quilters – alongside front-of-house developments too numerous to mention.
“We genuinely have some great opportunities,” concludes Tony. “We’re solvent, we’re profitable, and we have good owners who are keen to invest and are hugely supportive. In terms of supply chain, we’re seen by many retailers as the best-integrated bed supplier in the country – and we’re already some way towards translating that success to our upholstery divisions. Watch this space!”
This article was published in the September issue of Furniture News magazine. Access the digital magazine to explore the group's divisions in more detail, and read more about the group's activities in the contract market in a dedicated beds and bedroom furniture supplement from sister title, Hospitality Interiors.
