M&A season continues for furniture, mattress segments | Sheila Long O’Mara


Here we go again. Welcome to the most interesting of times in the home furnishings business: mergers and acquisition time.

While we’re still a month and a half away from the end of the year, the industry — furniture, mattress and logistics segments included — has seen a significant buying and selling of companies. I’ve written a lot about Tempur Sealy International’s proposed acquisition of Mattress Firm, and that is still pending via a court challenge by the Federal Trade Commission.

Morgan Stanley Research predicted a 50% increase in deals this year compared with 2023, with the largest number of deals occurring in Europe and North America. While the analyst report did not specify the home furnishings industry, we’ve seen our fair share of activity throughout the past 12 months, and I hear more lies ahead.

Last month, foam producer Carpenter Co. announced its acquisition of omnichannel mattress brand Casper Sleep. Casper had been scooped up by private equity firm Durational Capital in 2021. Prior to the deal, Carpenter and Casper had been operating under a supply agreement. This deal marks Carpenter’s third buy in less than 18 months, with Recticel, a European company, and North Carolina-based NCFI leading the charge.

A bit of history: Last year, Durational Capital had carved out Casper’s Canadian business as a standalone entity, and Canadian sleep retailer Sleep Country Canada picked it up.

Speaking of Sleep Country, a deal by Fairfax Financial Holdings to buy the 307-unit omnichannel retailer closed earlier this year.

Connected with Tempur Sealy’s proposed buy of Mattress Firm, fast-growing Frederick, Maryland-based Mattress Warehouse has agreed to buy 107 Sleep Outfitters locations, 73 Mattress Firm stores and seven distribution centers. The deal is subject to the closing of the Mattress Firm deal.

Earlier this year, shortly following the winter Las Vegas Market, Ashley Home, a division of Ashley Global Retail, announced the acquisition of digitally native Resident Home, parent of Nectar.

A year ago this week, Bedding Industries of America merged with online mattress brand Saatva. The relationship between the two companies began in 2010 when Ron Rudzin founded Saatva, and Bedding Industries of America became the brand’s manufacturing partner.

One more in the bedding sector: Healthguard parent company Bay Street Manufacturing closed on its acquisition of CKI Solutions in September. The deal helps Canada-based HealthGuard expand its U.S. footprint.

Beyond the sleep landscape, we’ve seen deals in home furnishings with a division of Asian furniture maker Green River Group’s acquisition of Hillsdale Furniture renaming the company HH2. The company quickly followed with its buy of Abbyson this summer.

Logistics has also delivered a few deals, including American West’s acquisition of Elite Delivery and Diverse Logistics’ buy of TCA Logistics Corp.

That’s just a snapshot of what we’ve seen in the past 12 months. Again, I’m hearing more activity is on the rise, and during the recent High Point Market, strategic conversations were being held among a number of home furnishings companies.





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