Silentnight is on a mission to help the nation sleep great, one city, one town, one sleeper at a time
Recognising that everyone has different needs when it comes to sleep, Silentnight work tirelessly to create sleep solutions to help everyone everywhere get the best out of bedtime. The company is committed to reducing its environmental impact and has set a clear target to reach net-zero emissions by 2040. While there’s still work to do, sustainability is a no compromise, guiding principle in how Silentnight designs, manufactures and delivers its products.
Based in Barnoldswick in Lancashire, Clarke’s Mattresses was founded in 1946 by Tom and Joan Clarke and became Silentnight Beds in the early 50s. “We are proud to be the most trusted sleep brand and market leader in terms of brand awareness and market share,” begins Danny Blackmore, Operations Director. “We employ more than 700 people, producing more than one million bedding products every year, and we are proud to be celebrating our 80th Anniversary next year!
“Silentnight provides a wide range of sleep products, including mattresses, divans and headboards. We supply All channels, and a high percentage of customers across the consumer and contract landscape. All our products are shipped on a make-to-order basis, and we pride ourselves on our quality and operational service levels,” Danny continues.
“We drive the business using a three-pillar Kaizen approach and have recently won an award for Operational Excellence from the Kaizen Institute in recognition of this. The primary tier focuses on our strategy and how we deploy this throughout the business, via a series of strategic key initiatives with challenging stretch targets. This ensures that the whole business is pulling in the same direction, focusing on the action plans to deliver the improvement targets. We have a monthly review where we hold ourselves, and each other accountable for the actions we have set. The secondary tier is formed from the series of targeted Kaizen initiatives that are structured to deliver a step change in performance across the specific functions. These are executed in three-monthly cycles. Supporting all of this is the iterative daily process that reinforces communication across the teams and feeds into the targeted Kaizen events to deliver sustainable change.
“The strategic deployment process (SDP) has been a critical addition to our business as it really fosters and develops that stretch mentality,” Danny explains. “We trained the entire leadership and wider management team in the process, and we now live and breathe this methodology. It ensures that we focus on what is important and what will make the difference. It goes much wider than lean manufacturing and it covers the entire business, with key initiatives spread across operational, digital and commercial responsibilities. The process starts by creating a problem to solve, this forces us to think wider than simply hitting a set of KPIs. It is also important to have robust financial metrics in place to measure success and ensure we stay on track. The targeted Kaizen events also cover processes in the admin, office and digital functions and are not constrained to operational areas.”
Silentnight has a product pipeline that is driven by market insight and consumer-led innovation. The company works with countless external partners including macro trend agencies, government agencies and academic institutions. “As the biggest brand in the market,” Danny elaborates, “it is important that we understand sleep and continually push to improve the quality of sleep for everyone through our products. We work across all aspects of sleep and have a SATRA Accredited Laboratory on site. We have developed many additional tests and procedures that go above and beyond the standard. This allows us to effectively substantiate any claims and understand in detail how products perform and respond in situ, not just in a lab. All the details relating to resilience, sustainability, breathability, firmness, thermal conductivity, material and chemical content are meticulously calculated and captured to provide a wide-reaching database. This allows the product team to tailor product solutions to address specific issues and present the best performing products to the consumer. 
“The Rest Easy mattress that we supply to Premier Inn, for example, was in development for approximately 18 months. We aimed to provide a unique sleep solution that fully supports the ambition of Whitbread and the Premier Inn team,” Danny shares. “Comfort and quality of sleep are extremely important to wellbeing. We developed a new set of test methods, in addition to the British Standard testing, to understand the physical aspects of sleep better, including the transmission of heat and moisture in the sleeping micro-climate.
“The team also focused on the importance of spinal support and worked hard to fully understand this in terms of effective zoning, collecting over a million data points, working with independent labs, specialists in biomechanics, and academic institutions to map the spine in multiple planes with 3D cameras, to ensure minimal diversion from the neutral position. Considerations for product end of life were also considered. We extended the life of the mattress by splitting it into two components, putting in a defined replacement program to reprocess the materials. Having a two-piece construction is also a significant benefit to housekeeping as it is much easier and lighter to maneuver. The compliance team worked extremely hard in partnership with the Whitbread technical team to ensure the product was put through its paces to deliver the best night’s sleep possible.”
In 2024, following a six-month process, Kent-based bed and mattress manufacturer, Sleepeezee, was acquired by The Sleep Group, owned by HIG Capital. The Sleep Group is the majority shareholder of Silentnight. “The Sleepeezee acquisition has allowed The Sleep Group to obtain more market coverage and leverage further growth in the consumer and contract markets,” Danny adds. “Steve Warren and the team at Sleepeezee are doing a great job and the acquisition has been seamless. It has also allowed us to share best practices and learn from one another.
“Sustainability isn’t a consideration for us. It is a must and a way of life that underpins our strategy. We have a dedicated team at Silentnight to ensure we strive for every improvement across our Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions and we are on track to meet our near-term emission reduction targets. The team works closely with suppliers, industry experts and material scientists to ensure we leave no stone unturned. We have developed a bespoke product passport and certification scheme that allows us to measure the carbon content, recyclability and recycled content across all our raw materials and finished goods.
“Silentnight has numerous accreditations, including the science-based targets initiative, Climate Pledge, and we are on a journey to becoming a B Corp. We also pride ourselves on being able to substantiate all our claims with objective data. We generate an annual ESG impact report in partnership with Sustainable Advantage and report on our progress in the ESG sphere via the Carbon Disclosure Project. End of life is a key focus for us as part of our product lifecycle analysis; we are a key advocate for EPR and ensuring that all mattresses are responsibly recycled rather than going to landfill,” Danny details.
Looking to the future, Silentnight’s priorities are all pre-defined for the year through its SDP process and the supporting action plans in place. “We have a series of targets to improve (TTIs). These are set for the year, and the team strives to achieve them. If we are stalling on any, the initiative owners will look to put counter measures in place. We are focusing on delivering our budget and all the supporting strategic initiatives to maximize revenue, opportunities for growth, and efficiency improvements.
“Silentnight, Sleepeezee and The Sleep Group will continue to grow in line with the five-year business plan,” Danny concludes. “The market is extremely challenging currently but the processes we have in place have ensured we are in a great position and that we have a strong, resilient business with further capacity to grow. Both businesses are so important to the local communities, and it is these people that have contributed to the success over the years. There are many long-serving individuals on both sites who have a genuine sense of pride in their place of work and are so passionate about the products they are involved with.”