"Bed is Science" Ace Bed Shakes No.1 Throne... Two Years of Decline

Sales down 11.5%, Operating Profit down 12.7%

Ace Bed, the No. 1 bed company in Korea, experienced negative growth for the second consecutive year. This is due to intensified competition as furniture companies entered the market and rental home appliance companies such as Coway also joined. There are even forecasts that Ace Bed, which has consistently held the No. 1 position, may lose its top spot.

On the 6th, Ace Bed announced that it recorded sales of 306.4 billion KRW and an operating profit of 57 billion KRW. Sales decreased by 11.5% compared to the previous year, and operating profit fell by 12.7% during the same period.

Ace Bed experienced negative growth for two consecutive years. Although it enjoyed a COVID-19 boom in 2021, its growth immediately slowed the following year, putting a brake on a decade-long growth streak.

Ace Bed Ace Square Wonju Branch. (Photo by Ace Bed)

The decline in performance appears to be influenced by the ongoing housing transaction cliff and weakened consumer sentiment. Additionally, steadily rising labor and logistics costs have contributed to increased cost of sales, acting as a negative factor.

A bigger problem is that amid continuing adverse conditions, competition among companies is becoming increasingly fierce. Ace Bed and Simmons Bed once held about 60% of the domestic bed market share. However, recent estimates place their market share at around 30-40%.

This is due to furniture companies such as Hanssem, Hyundai Livart, and Shinsegae Casa entering the bed market. Furthermore, rental home appliance companies like Coway and SK Magic have also joined, causing significant shifts in the market.

Hanssem plans to increase its influence in the bed market by expanding sales of not only its mattress brand 'Four Seasons' but also 'hotel bed' frames. Hyundai Livart launched the hotel-style bed ‘Aesthetic’ last year and is expanding its sales network by leveraging Zinus, a mattress specialist company it acquired in May 2020. Zinus’s domestic sales reached 51.6 billion KRW last year, a 66.4% increase from the previous year.

Coway plans to introduce new products this year centered around its sleep & healing care brand 'Virex.' Starting with the launch of the 'Virex Volume Frame' in February, it plans to release the 'Virex Reclining Massage Bed,' which won the 2024 CES Innovation Award, within the year. Coway’s mattress division sales nearly reached 250 billion KRW last year.

Simmons, a sibling company and the industry’s No. 2, is closely pursuing Ace Bed with aggressive marketing moves. It is also actively targeting younger consumers by launching the industry’s first vegan mattress made without any animal-derived materials across all products. Industry insiders predict that Simmons may surpass Ace Bed’s sales this year.

In response, Ace Bed plans to expand customer touchpoints through new store openings and renovations. It intends to steadily increase experiential stores such as ‘Ace Square,’ where customers who want a bed that perfectly suits them can directly try products and make purchasing decisions.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.