DesleeClama

Living the dream

Sleep solutions provider DesleeClama’s commitment to customer satisfaction through research and development has resulted in strong industry recognition, with three innovation award wins and a commendation in 2015 alone.

Founded by Maurice Deslee in 1928, the inception of Deslee enabled Maurice to merge his love for beautiful fabrics and design with his passion for craftsmanship and innovation. Maintaining his legacy to this day, the Belgium headquartered DesleeClama continues to focus on delivering high quality mattress fabrics with exquisite designs to the market; in addition, it also searches for new technological opportunities that will ensure ongoing innovations in a competitive and demanding industry.

Aware that the bedding industry undergoes constant changes, DesleeClama set up a state-of-the-art dedicated Innovation & Design Centre (iDC) in 2012 to enable swift responses to new trends and technologies. This strategic development has proven fruitful for the firm, as it has proven its ability to produce the mattress fabrics that its clients are looking to provide to end users. To make these innovations a reality, the company’s engineers develop innovative mattress fabric and cover concepts that take advantage of researched opportunities that are arising in different markets.

Since Autumn 2012 the company has launched a new collection, twice yearly, with a new look and feel for mattress manufacturers across the globe. Each collection is divided into five styles, with each style representing a particular design and colour range to inspire sleeping solutions; this diversity enables DesleeClama to target the demands of a specific region, while also focusing on various other market segments.

This ever increasing range of sleeping solutions resulted in three award wins at the prestigious Interzum 2015 exhibition in May, in which a total of 269 design entries from 21 different countries presented their trendsetting innovations. The first award, the Best of the Best, was given to DesleeClama for its new generation of knitted mattress fabrics that yield and support in every perspective and position. The product, named Biaxial, can stretch up to 50 per cent in every direction and recovers from any kind of pressure to revert to its original shape, even after several years of use. The Best of the Best award is particularly impressive as only nine products have received the accolade so far, and Biaxial is the only innovation within the bedding industry to win.

On top of this, DesleeClama won two high product quality awards for its DC Metamorphosis product. The fabric is sound absorbing and can be attached to the frame of a stand or to hoist points mounted on a ceiling. With its stretched surface, DC Metamorphosis can also be used for projections as it fits around any curve or shape without so much as a seam, stitch or fold. “Metamorphosis is a new business idea that is a small step away from our core business offering. It is a sound absorbing, fire retardant fabric that repels dust and has self cleaning properties. We were the only booth at the exhibition with a sound proof fabric as a surrounding and we designed it all ourself to make a statement that it can be used in real interiors. Since the exhibition we have been in discussions with architects who are interested in making Metamorphosis a soundproof decoration behind a bed, for example,” says Ben Ducatteeuw, Director at DesleeClama’s dedicated Innovation and Design Centre.

The second high quality product award winner was DoubleSided, an innovative range of knitted fabrics that can be used on both sides to create two different mattress concepts with one and the same fabric. The innovative product allows consumers to change their sleeping environment by simply turning their DoubleSided mattress inside out and have, for example, refreshing moisture management functionality on one side of a cover and warm Merino wool to the other.

In addition, the company has taken a global yet local approach to operations and today ensures close customer relationships thanks to its wide reaching production plants in areas such as Belgium, Poland, Romania, Estonia, the US, Brazil, South Africa, China and Indonesia. This local presence has given the company a competitive edge in the market as everything that is developed and validated at the iDC centre can then be spread out across the world through production at any one of its factories. “This means that if a customer sees a product they like at an exhibition anywhere in the world, they can then get this product manufactured at the plant most suitable for them,” explains Ben. This global presence also means that the company can gain enviable knowledge of the local sleeping needs of people in all areas of the world.

More recently, the company took the strategic decision to open a new production plant in Poland, says Geert Flament, commercial director of DesleeClama Europe.“It really is a continuation of our strategy to be a local yet connected global company with the same global quality procedures in all production plants. Poland is a very important area for us, as is Germany, which is nearby.

“With the new plant opening, DesleeClama has been growing at a significant speed this year with an increase in employee numbers and new machines in place. We have never invested so hugely and so quickly in new machinery.”

Moving forward DesleeClama will continue to support the establishment of its plant in Poland while also seeking further opportunities to expand into new strategic areas. “Furthermore, the company will focus on investing in new technology to ensure further innovations can be produced in the production sites while new innovations are created in the iDC,” concludes Ben.

DesleeClama

Products: Knitted and woven mattress fabrics

Sites: Belgium, Romania, Estonia, the US, China, Indonesia, Brazil, South Africa and Poland