Discover Leggett & Platt International Bedding’s industry-leading bedding components
Leggett & Platt has been a driving force in bedding technology since it invented a spiral steel coil bedspring in 1885. With facilities across the globe including the US, Europe, South America, and Asia-Pacific, Leggett & Platt provides high-quality innersprings and bedding components to customers across the globe.
Leggett & Platt International Bedding, a business unit of Leggett & Platt overseeing all bedding related business outside North America, boasts its own in-house spring, foam and machinery manufacturing businesses. Leggett & Platt Springs UK (L&P Springs UK) provides, primarily in the UK market, high-quality innerspring components for the bedding and furniture industries. Backed by the wider company’s industry expertise, L&P Springs UK offers world-class professionalism and flexible, local service as part of its aim to be the go-to company for innerspring design and supply.
To learn more about the business and its springs division, we speak with Ross Ramsden, Senior Branch Controller. “L&P Springs UK was formally established in 1999 following the wider group’s ambition to create a UK presence,” Ross begins. “Leggett & Platt acquired a number of businesses in 1999 and 2002, and, as things progressed, the UK business grew. In 2008 the business made the decision to build a purpose-built vertically integrated facility. The facility was built to serve and support the UK’s major mattress producers.”
After continued growth, the business expanded the site to further increase warehousing capability and add a new quality and testing laboratory accompanied by employee training and welfare facilities. “We’re proud to announce that our business has recently completed the transition from LP9000 to ISO9001 for the manufacture, warehouse and distribution of bedding components and products as certified by NSF-ISR,” Ross reveals. “This certification is testament to the high level of quality, service, and reliability we can provide our customers on an ongoing basis.
Seamless support and service
“The business is constantly moving forward. From a continuous improvement perspective, the company has recently invested in a state-of-the-art automation project, which is due to come online towards the end of 2024. So, expect more information and future announcements in early 2025.
“Our warehouse facility is world class. Hand in hand with our manufacturing technology, this strategically positions us to react to customer requirements enabling us to remain responsive to their needs. By providing increased flexibility, we ultimately help to reduce our customers’ reliance on holding surplus inventory and ultimately reduce their working capital. We operate a uniform policy that ensures we deliver consistently high-quality products regardless of type, size or specification, so customers can approach us with the confidence that we will provide the support and services they require.”
Turning to the company’s product portfolio, Ross continues: “We offer four primary product groups: Continuous Coils, Open Coils, Pocket Coils, and NanoCoils.
“Pocket Coils- our broadest product group – is the primary solution on offer within the industry and generally forms the inner core of a mattress. NanoCoils are a smaller spring designed to be a comfort layer product situated within the filling layers of a mattress, as opposed to the core spring unit
Robust relationships
“We’re currently working alongside our customers to identify strategic opportunities to provide more value upstream products,” he adds. “While our main focus is providing mattress components to major players in the UK’s bedding industry, we’re also thinking about what we can do to help streamline our customers’ production processes or strengthen the ways in which their facilities operate.”
When it comes to sustainability, Leggett & Platt takes its commitment to environmental responsibility seriously. “It’s no secret that we’re a big consumer of electricity, but we’ve got contracts in place with our utility companies to provide us with as much green or renewable energy as possible,” Ross explains. “We’re also preparing to install solar panels on the roof of our factory in Barnsley.
“We’re also working closely with our supplier base from a recyclable material perspective, aiming to increase the amount of recycled content in raw materials. For the steel mills we work with, for instance, we’re discussing the possibility of reusing scrap content. In terms of our distribution network, we’re exploring ways to reduce our carbon footprint by optimizing our delivery process.
“On a case-by-case basis, we’re slowly transitioning from diesel or petrol cars to hybrid or electric vehicles (EVs), with on-site charging points having been recently installed. We’re also replacing ageing energy consumption infrastructure, such as implementing LED lighting across our sites.”
Considering Leggett & Platt’s commitment to quality, innovation, and sustainability, the business will continue its current trajectory of successful growth at the forefront of the UK’s bedding market. It’s certainly no surprise that L&P Springs UK has been named as the best bedding component supplier in the UK for the fourth consecutive year by the readers of Furniture News, which is testament to the company’s excellent level of quality and service.
“2024 has been a tough year for the bedding industry at large, so 2025 will see us focus on gaining traction and getting our recent investments on line, which will put us in a good position during 2025 and onwards,” Ross concludes. “Further afield, we want to continue working collaboratively alongside bedding manufacturers to strengthen those relationships and create robust partnerships that foster a seamless supply chain.”