Bulgarian Mattress Maker TED-BED Conquers Europe, Sets Eyes on Asia

Bulgaria's largest mattress producer TED-BED Jsc has registered impressive results on the European markets, and has directed its attention towards new export destinations such as South Korea and Taiwan.

In the first quarter of 2011, TED-BED registered a 150%-growth of export sales compared with the same period of 2010, while its production capacity has tripled.

"These results show that we are solidifying our positions, and are headed in the right direction. Our greatest challenge is to establish TED as an European leader, and to fashion stable cooperation with our clients and partners. Our latest achievements included winning over three new strategic clients in Germany, and receiving an invitation for the second consecutive year for the most prestigious furniture expo in the world, Salone Internazionale del Mobile, in Milan, Italy," explained Diana Tsvetkova, TED-BED Commercial Director for export markets.

TED's collection Sensi Scandia attracted enormous interest for a second time at the Salone Internazionale del Mobile expo, which took place between April 12 and April 17, 2011, and was attended by over 300 000 people.

"This year Salone Internazionale del Mobile Милано, the largest and most luxurious furniture expo in the world, celebrated its 50th birthday. It is an honor for the TED team to be able to present its products there together with the biggest companies in the world. For 16 years we've managed to catch up with the best, and we are now focusing on coming up with better and more innovative products. We have clients in most European countries but Europe is not our limit, which is why we have directed our attention towards Korea and Taiwan. We are convinced that there is nothing impossible given the right approach," Tsvetkova said.

The Sensi Scandia collection of TED-BED Jsc is inspired by a Scandinavian type of bedroom furniture. It has been developed by TED in cooperation with partners from Germany, the Netherlands, and Denmark, and is made of environment friendly materials.

TED-BED Jsc is the largest mattresses producer in Bulgaria. Its production facilities have an area of 24 000 square meters, making it one of the three largest mattress maker in Europe, and are the most modern in the entire continent.

The company has a distribution network of 900 stores in Bulgaria, and exports its products to the UK, Switzerland, Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands, Croatia, Slovenia, Slovakia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Ireland, Ukraine, Greece, Romania, and Macedonia.

The brand portfolio of TED-BED Jsc, includes the TED Mattresses for the Bulgarian market, the TED Dream Places – mattresses exported around Europe; Sensi Scandia – highest-class sleeping systems; Linea Mattresses – economy-class mattresses; TED Sleeping Systems – mattress parts; TED Home Collection – bed linens. Its product series are Natura, Wellness, Scandinavian, British, Italian, Children's, and limited editions such as the TED Rock Mattress.

"We have welcomed the economic crisis. It is here to help us. Thanks to it, we are adapting our manufacturing much faster," says the company CEO Elin Todorov.

TED was started back in the very early 1990s as a family company whose name is an acronym of the names of its founders, the father named Todor, and his two sons Elin and Dimitar. The firm first focused on construction as all of the three founders are construction engineers.

They only started to produce mattresses in the mid 1990s, and while their company has several additional manufacturing operations, it gradually put an emphasis on the production of mattresses and bedroom products.

In 2009, TED-BED Jsc invested about EUR 11 M in its new manufacturing plant near Plovdiv, which was opened in 2009. It employs about 300 workers.