Tuft & Needle (stylized as TUFT&NEEDLE, often simply T&N) is an American direct to consumer mattress and bedding brand owned by Serta Simmons. The company was founded on July 19, 2012 by Daehee Park and John-Thomas Marino in Phoenix, Arizona. On August 21, 2018, Serta Simmons acquired Tuft & Needle, which continues to operate as a separate brand.
Video Tuft & Needle
History
Tuft & Needle started as an e-commerce and manufacturing company founded on July 19, 2012 by Daehee Park and John-Thomas Marino. Both Daehee Park and John-Thomas Marino (often known as JT) met via the entrepreneur program at Pennsylvania State University. After JT and his wife overpaid for a substandard mattress, Park had the idea of creating a vertically-integrated e-commerce mattress company that optimized the cost of a mattress and simplified the buying experience. The company was co-founded on July 19, 2012 by Park and Marino with $3,000 each of their personal savings.
They grew the company to over $100 million in annual revenue with no venture funding. Within its first full year in business, the company generated $1 million in sales at the end of 2013. On April 2014, Park spoke about founding a start-up and achieving success at IST Start-Up Week, which was hosted by Pennsylvania State University. The company also opened its first "brick-and-mortar" showroom at Phoenix in December, which was made as "an experiment" and was available by appointment only.
Tuft & Needle acquired the premium 2-letter domain name TN.com in September 2015 for an undisclosed sum. The company established its headquarters at the historical O.S. Stapley Hardware buildings at Grand Avenue in Phoenix in December 2015, after a city grant of $300,000 was used to improve and repair the buildings by a real estate developer. The company also had an alleged 150% sales increase after a partnership with Google, with $40 million in sales from 2015. In 2015, Tuft & Needle grew to over 100 employees and earned over $100 million in revenue.
After turning down investment offers from venture capitals investors, instead Park and Marino took out a $500,000 loan from Bond Street in 2016. In 2016, Tuft & Needle launched a national billboard campaign entitled "Mattress Stores Are Greedy".
In 2017, the company had $170 million in sales.
As of August 23rd, 2018, Tuft and Needle announced a merger with mattresses giant Serta Simmons.
Maps Tuft & Needle
Products
The company currently offers mattresses ranging from twin to California King to be shipped in small box (a maximum box size of 18 in x 18 in x 44 in or 46cm x 46cm x 112cm). The shipping and business model is usually direct-to-consumer and the foam is made with a custom-made, in-house polyurethane foam called T&N Adaptive Foam. It is density proprietary, as it has 7" of 1.8 lbs/ft of the foam support and is made in the United States. The mattress by itself is refundable and, in doing so, will be donated to a local charity or nonprofit and the mattress is covered with a 10-year warranty. In 2017, the company released a contour-cut foam pillow and percale cotton sheets. In 2018, Airstream announced a collaboration with the company in the Globetrotter RV model to feature a co-branded mattress manufactured by Tuft & Needle.
Retail presence
As of August 2018, Tuft & Needle operated three retail stores with an additional two stores under construction. Their products are also stocked at select Lowe's and Crate & Barrel locations in the United States.
Reception
The company has received press from Business Insider, Marketing Land, The Arizona Republic Consumer Reports, Forbes, Phoenix Business Journal, Bloomberg and Wired.
References
Source of article : Wikipedia
0 Comments