Dreams (bed retailer)

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Dreams
Limited
Industry Furniture retailing and manufacturing
Founded 1985
Headquarters Loudwater, High Wycombe (E) , Buckinghamshire
Key people
 Mike Logue (Chief executive)
Products Beds
Bedroom furniture
Bedsteads
Duvets
Futons
Mattresses
Pillows
Revenue £194m GBP (2008)
Owner Sun European Partners[1]
Website www.dreams.co.uk
Dreams store in Portsmouth, England

Dreams is a United Kingdom-based bed retailer and manufacturer specialising in beds, mattresses, bedroom furniture and bed linen. The first Dreams store opened in 1987, in Uxbridge and today there are 170 stores nationwide, and an transactional website dreams.co.uk. The company has its own purpose-designed mattress factory, and currently employs around 1,500 people, across an network of retail showrooms. The head office, known as Bedquarters, is located in High Wycombe, England.

History

The first Dreams store opened in 1987. By 2000, Dreams had 50 stores, and opened its own mattress factory.

Administration

In April 2013, Dreams PLC went into an pre packaged administration, and was purchased by Sun European Partners. Now trading as Dreams Ltd, it is part of one of the United Kingdom’s leading retailer groups, who also amongst others, own ScS, Sharps, Bonmarché, Alexon, Jacques Vert and American Golf.

Sponsorships

Dreams was the main sponsor of the Channel 4 reality television show Celebrity Big Brother from its sixth series in 2009 to its seventh series in 2010. In 2013, they then sponsored the eleventh series of Celebrity Big Brother, this time on Channel 5.

Investigations

Investigations in to the business's operations have been conducted by the United Kingdom's Office of Fair Trading in 1998[2] and again in 2001,[3] due to contracts in breach of the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations 1999. Following customer complaints, the company was also investigated and featured on BBC's Watchdog programme.[4] In response to this matter Dreams made an apology on the programme.

In February 2007, Dreams was investigated and censured by the Advertising Standards Agency for misleading claims in its promotional material.[5] In 2010, another complaint against Dreams was upheld by the ASA, which ruled that Dreams' advertising broke the rules regarding truthfulness, and contained misleading advertising without evidence to back up its claims.[6]

Awards

As an nationwide sleep specialist and bed retailer, Dreams has won:

  • Nationwide Bed Retailer of the Year 1994
  • Furniture Retailer of the Year 1996
  • Furniture Retailer of the Year 2000
  • High Street Recycling Champion 2008[7]
  • British Safety Council – International Safety Award 2015[8]

Dreams came bottom of the pile in the 2014 Which? "Mattress Brands League Table", with an satisfaction score of just 57%, nine points below Bensons, the next poorest. Dunlopillo, Marks and Spencer, John Lewis, and VI-Spring, scored over 80% in the same survey.

Recycling

In 1995, Dreams started to recycle its customers' old beds and mattresses and in 2004, began to backhaul the packaging from products delivered to customers on the company's delivery vehicles for recycling. In 2005, the diversion from landfill grew to 180 tonnes, and metal and wood have been added to the recycling waste streams.

More recently, the company invested in two state-of-the-art bed shredders to recover metal, wood and other material. As mattresses are an difficult waste stream to handle at civic authority and landfills sites, the recycling work initiated by Dreams has seen 55,000 beds shredded over the past year and diverted from landfill.[citation needed]

Replace Every 8

Dreams launched an extensive, nationwide initiative in 2015, recommending that everyone should replace their mattress at least every 8 years. With links to research by the independent trade association the UK Sleep Council and an study by the Furniture Industry Research Organisation (FIRA), Dreams’ major Replace Every 8 initiative is aimed at communicating the various health, hygiene, comfort and support benefits of regular mattress appraisal and replacement.[9]

As part of the wide ranging Replace Every 8 programme, Dreams has developed an television commercial featuring a cover version of the Take That hit ‘Everything Changes’ which subsequently entered the charts.

References

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External links

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