What beds and bedding trends have you seen recently?
Nuran Acar: According to some expert travellers and designers, one of the bedroom trends is platform beds. This style of bed has started to be seen more and more — their lower profile adds a unique design element to any bedroom.
Memory Foam is very popular — it was created by NASA 20 years ago and ended up in mattresses instead of the space programme. They respond to the body’s natural heat, quickly moulding itself to the shape of a warm body.
The Select Comfort Sleep Number bed is rapidly gaining in popularity. It has uniquely designed air chambers which it uses rather than metal and springs to provide a level of support that can be adjusted literally at the touch of a button.
| Advertisement |
The Firmness Control System is a remote attached to a pump that allows you to select the bed’s firmness level. Even better, the 7000 and 9000 models now come with two remotes that allow each person to select the comfort level for their side of the bed.
Gopi Joghee: Mattress companies are being innovative and bring new concepts to the market regularly — there is the EverNU, where the top fabric of the mattress can be zipped out to launder, as well as the No Turn mattress, which does not need to be flipped.
Sudarshan Rai: Hoteliers seem to be looking at sleep products as a complete package and hence there is a lot of focus on the accessories as well, like pillows and duvets.
To what degree are your beds environmentally friendly?
Sudarshan Rai: We are known in the market for our green initiatives — we produce mega foam, which does not use methylene chloride during its manufacture. Methylene chloride is an ozone depleting substance commonly used by mattress manufacturers to manufacture the cheaper foams.
Sameer Ahmed: We use both organic cotton and natural latex in some of our products.
Hassan Al-Hazeem: We are an ISO 140001 certified company and we are making sure there is less of our mattress deposits going in to overflowing landfills with our new EverNU Technology.
Moreover, all of our steel products are made of recycled steel and wood is sourced from managed forests.
Ali Q. Asaad: We recognise the importance of environmental sustainability and take seriously our corporate responsibility for good stewardship in this effort.
Our lumber resources is certified to SFI and CSA standards, 100% of our steel products come from recycled steel, and 100% of manufacturing scrap from all Sealy’s plants is taken by a third-party company to be recycled for other products.
How have you been affected by the economic situation?
Sudarshan Rai: The economic downturn has had its effects globally and no one is immune to it. As an established company, we are in many different business segments like hospitality, dealer segment as well as company-owned retailing outlets. This has given us the backing and resilience to keep growing even during such economic situations and we have been able to seal some important deals recently.
Ali Q. Asaad: The economic downturn slowed down when new hotels were put on hold, but business for the renovations of existing hotels was still ongoing. The market is increasing now.
Sameer Ahmed: The past few years were challenging and we witnessed a decrease in 2010 due to delay in projects. However, the business started growing in 2011, with the opening of new hotels in the GCC.
Hassan Al-Hazeem: Due to the economic crisis there was a downturn, but looks like it has bottomed out, given the recent renewed activity in the hotel industry in UAE, Saudi Arabia, Muscat and Qatar.
Article continues on next page ...
Search our database of more than 2,700 industry companies
