Celebrating Australian Made - Sealy beds down a 100 year old quality reputation

Our editorial series Celebrating Australian Made, coinciding with Australian Made Week, turns to something all Australians want – a good night’s rest on a great bed. Here Nicholas Way profiles Sealy Australia which has been giving us just that since the 1920s.

The bed manufacturing industry is one of Australia’s success stories.

Unlike many other industries it has kept imports to a minimum with the local industry having the vast majority of the market bedded down.

And no company better exemplifies why the home-grown talent dominates the market than Sealy Australia, a family business that traces its roots back to Brisbane in the 1920s.

Industry leader Sealy has been offering beds from entry-level to high-end luxury in the country for more than 50 years, and every bed and mattress has been made in Australia.

Sealy Australia’s Design Innovation Manager Britta Gehrman said: “We see hand-made in Australia as a badge of honour and we do our best to live up to our goal of making the highest quality Australian made products at every price range.

“Our materials are very much Australian sourced, Australian designed, Australian hand-sewn, and tailored-for-you by Australian employees.

“We have a premium image in the marketplace, underpinned by pure Australian craftsmanship.

“Timber is sourced from Maryborough in Queensland, steel gauge wire from Australian suppliers and fabrics from Victoria – it’s very much a national affair. We are proud supporters of Australian Made and Owned.”

Along this proud journey, there have been many milestones. But National Marketing Manager Wade Ganzer identifies the launching of Sealy Posturepedic in 1969 as being particularly significant.

Ganzer said: “After we worked with leading orthopaedic surgeons, this brand introduced a breakthrough concept of a mattress that delivered ‘no more morning backache’. It quickly became the number one mattress brand in Australia, a title it still holds today.”

Research has always been integral to Sealy’s DNA according to Ganzer.

“We have the largest mattress research and development facility in the southern hemisphere, holding more patents in Australia than any other mattress brand. We know the importance of focussing on innovation, appreciating that finding a smarter way to make a better bed never ends.

“World leading orthopaedic research sets the foundation for genuine product innovation in aligning the resting body, and our new RestSupport and AlignSupport spring technology sets the industry benchmark in support technology, being the only spring technology that is backed by orthopaedic research in the market.”

Going hand in glove with research has been a strong emphasis on manufacturing. But Sealy’s five bedding manufacturing facilities located in every major mainland capital city are a far cry from the typical manufacturing production line, as highlighted by this one statistic – each Sealy bed will pass through a minimum of 11 sets of hands during the production process.

As Gehrman said: “End-to-end attention is a hallmark that the company prides itself on. Every detail — from design and research to prototypes and new product launches — are personally managed, influenced, quality checked and processed by the highly trained and precision-skilled hands of 700 Sealy employees.”

This dual focus of precision manufacturing underpinned by cutting-edge research allowed Sealy to quickly expand its operations in the 1970s and 1980s to its market leading position today as retailers largely shun low-cost, poor-quality product – they create too many problems for their businesses – and rely on locally made, quality products that deliver higher customer satisfaction.

Sealy is now setting its sights on the burgeoning Asian market where it has been exporting its range of beds and mattresses for the past 20 years.

Said Ganzer: “What we are finding is that there is a high degree of trust in Australian sourced and built bedding, and Sealy is quickly forging a reputation as the leading luxury mattress brand of choice in these growing and emerging markets, such as China and South Korea.”

Celebrating Australian Made is an editorial series by @AuManufacturing, created in cooperation with the Australian Made Campaign Limited for Australian Made Week.