Simmons Bedding history

Since Zalmon G. Simmons’s initial idea in 1876 to manufacture and mass produce the woven wire mattress, Simmons has been revolutionizing the mattress world.

In 1889, as a result of Simmons’s new manufacturing process, the price of beds dropped dramatically from $12 to 95 cents, effectively allowing more people to get a great night’s sleep.

In 1900, a Simmons engineer, James Marshall introduced a hand made coil spring that provided another leap forward in mattress comfort technology.

Simmons Manufacturing Company gained to national prominence when the founder’s son, Zalmon Simmons Jr., took over the company in 1911.

Simmons introduced the Wall-A-Bed bedding product in 1912, the predecessor to the well known Murphy Bed that Simmons would later produce for the Murphy Company.

The company incorporated as Simmons Co. in 1915.

Simmons launched it’s first national advertising campaign via the Saturday Evening Post in 1916.

In 1918, after World War I, Simmons introduced the cotton felt mattress, bringing a new level of comfort to sleepers.

By 1919, Simmons had acquired or built manufacturing plants across the United States and Canada with facilities in cities like Seattle, San Francisco, Toronto and Vancouver to name a few.

They even receive a listing on the New York Stock Exchange in 1924.

Simmons also initiated consumer focused sleep studies in 1925, in an effort to gain information and insight to peoples sleeping habits.

1926: Company debuts Beautyrest mattress.

By 1929, the company had sales of $9 million.

Simmons introduced a hide-a-way bed ‘Studio Couch’ in 1930 as the depression was forcing families to move in with each other in tighter spaces.

Simmons Co. became profitable again by 1935, and then entered a period of steadily growing sales.

1940: Hide-A-Bed sofa is introduced.

In 1957 Simmons created its National Technological Center in Munster, Indiana.

1958: Simmons begins selling queen and king-sized mattresses.

A company that it bought in 1962, Thonet Industries, specialized in making wood furniture for public use.

Simmons had a profit of over $8 million in 1968, and very little debt.

Grant Simmons explained to Fortune magazine (May 1976) how the move had energized the company and made executives more productive.

Though Grant Simmons had promised that things would get better over 1978, the company continued its poor performance.

1979: Simmons is sold to Gulf & Western.

Simmons became the Official Bedding Supplier of the 1980 Winter Games in Lake Placid, N.Y.

In 1985 Gulf & Western sold Simmons Co. to Wickes, another conglomerate with lumber and furniture holdings.

Simmons’s first trip through the revolving door of private equity came in 1986.

Eventually, Westray had to sell to Merrill Lynch Capital Partners in 1991.

1993: New chairman and chief executive is named; market share begins to rise.

In March 1996, Merrill Lynch sold its stake in Simmons to a Bahrain-based investment group, Investcorp.

By 1997, Simmons had sales of over $550 million, with a profit of about $50 million.

The company changed hands again in 1998 when a private investment firm, Fenway Partners, bought out most of Investcorp's share.

Zenon Nie resigned as chairman and chief executive in 2000, and he was replaced by Charles R. Eitel, formerly president of a fabric and flooring company. It hired a new advertising agency in 1999, and vowed to bring out a new campaign that would top even its successful bowling ball spots.

Sales for 2000 were reported at over $727 million, and the company was vying for the lead in the bedding market that it had helped to revolutionize.

Simmons began licensing its name to a textile manufacturer in 2001 to make sheets, comforters, accessories, and window treatments under the Beautyrest, BackCare, and other Simmons brand names.

The investment firm, which bought Simmons in 2003, has pocketed around $77 million in profit, even as the company’s fortunes have declined.

And by December 2004, THL found a way to get part of its initial investment back.

After another 37 years of making revolutionary mattresses, Simmons introduced the well-known “Bowling Ball Mattress” advertising campaign that was brought back by popular demand in 2005.

Lee, scion of the family that founded the Shoe Corporation of America, left his namesake firm in 2006 to start another investment company.

At his company, online customer reviews numbering 280,000 since 2007 more than compensate for store visits and mattress testing, he said.

Then, in the spring of 2008, when the slowing economy had begun to hurt sales, Simmons laid off the night shift at the Mableton plant.

As a testament to all of the resilience in the face of change, the Beautyrest mattress celebrated its 90th anniversary in 2015.

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