Tuft & Needle’s co-founder JT Marino and Daehee Park announced the merger of their company with the legacy mattress company Serta Simmons Bedding on August 21, 2018. The news came out as a big shock to the mattress industry. The companies announced their merger but kept the terms of the deal a secret. The transaction is expected to close in the coming 60 days.
About Tuft & Needle
Tuft & Needle is a six-year-old bootstrapped, Phoenix-based Company founded in the year 2012 by JT Marino and Daehee Park. With over 1 million happy sleepers and stores in Scottsdale, Gilbert, and Seattle, the company was named as Entrepreneur’s Best Company Culture in the year 2017 along with other prestigious awards.
The company has never brought in venture capital or some other outside funding. This merger with the Serta Simmons Bedding is the very first merger of the company. Tuft & Needle is one of the leading companies in the direct-to-customer mattress industry and is one of the driver companies for the transformation of the mattress industry and fast growing start-up as well. Read this article to learn about the Tuft & Needle products review.
About Serta Simmons Bedding
On the other, long-standing Serta Simmons Bedding is the leading sleep company that has been creating exceptional mattresses for the customers for nearly 150 long years.
The company is the largest manufacturer and supplier of mattresses in North America. Private equity firm, Advent International majority-owns the company but Serta Simmons Bedding still owns and manages two best-selling sleeping brands in North America: Serta and Beautyrest. SSB is based in Atlanta and it operates more than 30 stores in Canada and America.
Reasons For The Merger
So far we could not find any reason from those company sides about why they merged. But the experts are thinking about the following:
- One of the reasons believed to be behind the merger for the companies is to be able to serve the maximum customers sitting online as well as in the stores.
- And, another reason that may have led the companies for this merger may be the downgrading of the Serta Simmons Bedding’s corporate rating to B3 to B2 by the Moody’s Investors Service recently. It is suspected that the company might have taken such a big step to retain their status and position in the market.
The merger brought together the largest manufacturer, supplier, and marketer of the mattresses and the leading direct-to-consumer sleep product selling company. Serta Simmons Bedding will keep the Tuft & Needle’s brand and its founders, Marino and Park will join the Serta Simmons Bedding Company’s management team with the responsibility to expand its e-commerce business. JT Marino has been named as the Chief Strategy Officer and Daehee Park as the Chief Growth Officer as expanded roles with the SSB. Both the new appointees will be reporting to the Serta Simmons Bedding’s CEO Michael Traub. Their expanded roles will help in the effective and continued transformation of Serta Simmons Beddings into an Omnichannel and customer-centric company.
The merger is expected to strengthen the market leadership position of the Serta Simmons Bedding along with the expansion of its offerings in the direct-to-customer segment. Also, customer-centric innovations too will become the standard for the Serta Simmons Bedding Company and various value-added services will be developed for the Serta Simmons Bedding’s key retailers. The merger will also enable the Serta Simmons Bedding’s retail partners to have access to new offering including avenues for generating higher foot traffic, advanced customer insights and customer-centric innovations as key drivers for growth in the fast-evolving market.
Source:
Tuft & Needle merges with Serta Simmons
Serta Simmons Bedding, LLC To Merge With Tuft & Needle
Serta Simmons sews up deal with Tuft & Needle
