Women-owned bedding company Williams Co. Mattress isn’t new to the industry, but it may be a fresh option that many retailers don’t know about.
Co-founded by Alexa Williams (chief strategy officer), Madison Jordan (chief marketing officer) and Billy Williams (CEO), the company aims to “redefine luxury sleep” by combining three generations of experience in the sleep industry to make a distinct product.
After selling exclusively through its retail stores for 10 years, last summer the company started offering products to like-minded retailers, thus marking its formal entrance into the wholesale channel.
“We have some very unique manufacturing processes, and consequently, some very unique product offerings that do well in our retail stores,” Billy explains. “Now we plan to distribute our products nationwide and focus on doing business with retailers who focus on their local business by taking care of their customers and providing products that differentiate them from the large name-brand chains.”
One of the main differentiators of the brand is that its product is made in a certified organic factory, meaning it can make any of its products using certified organic materials. But the real focus is on the product itself.
“We’re constantly developing strategies to make our products more sustainable,” Billy explains. “And we look at sustainability from a couple of different viewpoints. The first one is the sustainability of the materials that we use. With everything we source, we try to find something that has a sustainability story. But we also look at sustainability from a different point of view — the longevity of the product.”
He says that Williams Co. is using high-resilient quilting, which means it weighs 3 pounds per cubic foot. And for the end user, that makes the product last substantially longer. The products also have zipper covers, which means layers can be replaced over time.
Currently, the company has two collections. First, its certified organic line has four models all available in dual firmness to accommodate consumers who have different preferences.
“The second product line, our hybrid line, is the one we’ve had the most success with both in our retail stores and with our current partners,” Billy explains. “It features a combination of organic wool as the fire retardant certified organic latex, but we use a high resilient quilting that is a 3-pound quilt foam. What has gotten our retailers excited is that all of this product comes rolled packed so there’s no freight cost to the consumer or the retailer.”
This all leads back to the sustainability story, according to Billy, because for a mattress company to be successful, it has to be sustainable. And that means high-profit margins and outstanding customer service.
“If a consumer invests in a mattress and it starts to develop body impressions in three to five years, it makes them question whether or not they’re going to repurchase that product,” he says. “Our goal is to help our partners keep their customers for life. If you sell somebody a product that performs the way that they expect it to, they’re going to do business with you again — whether it’s a second home, a guest bedroom or when they replace the product in the future.”
That has been the hallmark of the company’s business model, which has earned them 100,000 retail customers and a 70% customer retention rate.
“The critical component for the future of independent mattress retailers is how they differentiate themselves from their neighbors.” Billy says. “What we have created is a product line that gives retailers a competitive edge in their marketplace and keeps their businesses sustainable.
For more information about the company, contact Alexa alexa@williamscomattress.com.
