Wellness has long been a priority for Aussies, with a focus on key pillars of health like diet and exercise, mental health and crucially, sleep. Even well before my family’s business A.H. Beard was founded in 1899, sleep was on the minds of many. While the link between sleep and health might not have been fully recognised by science at that point, my great-great-grandfather knew that he was onto something important and that he wanted to help the world achieve better sleep.
As we celebrate our 125th birthday this month, it’s been a huge time for reflection. From our humble beginnings in our very first factory in Sydney to today, with over 400 employees, exporting to seven markets and selling over 8 million mattresses and counting — it’s been a journey.
Many factors contribute to a business thriving across five generations, but for us, one of the defining elements has been our ability to stay attuned to evolving consumer needs and trends.
Business success can never be based on just producing quality products — it’s also crucial to stay connected to what customers value. As wellness trends have shifted — think waterbeds and aerobics in the 1970s to today’s innovative sleep tech and “sleepmaxxing” — a deep understanding of what’s just a fad, or what is going to be a deep-rooted cultural wellness trend, is important to grasp.
Several trends in sleep wellness have shaped our journey. For instance, as people became more aware of sleep hygiene — the practices that help maintain healthy sleep habits — we focused on creating products that promote better sleep environments.
In the last decade, holistic wellness has become more integrated into daily life, with sleep positioned as a form of self-optimisation. Wearable devices that track sleep patterns and offer insights into improving rest have become a key part of people’s routines.
We saw this trend as an opportunity to elevate our product offerings, making them not just about comfort, but about offering customers the tools to improve their sleep quality.
Alongside this, sustainability has become a growing concern for consumers. As people started to seek more environmentally-conscious options, we responded by crafting a sustainable mattress collection with a 100% recyclable pocketed support system, ensuring that customers could not only enjoy a good night’s sleep but also feel good about their purchase.
More recently, the rise of mental health awareness has emphasised the link between sleep and emotional wellbeing. With the pandemic accelerating this shift, many people turned to sleep as a means to manage stress and protect their mental health.
As this trend took hold, we began focusing even more on making quality sleep accessible to all, ensuring our products catered to a wide range of budgets and needs.
This consumer-driven approach has led to steady growth and expansion, allowing us to offer our products to customers not just in Australia but also in markets like China and the United States.
Success overseas is often a direct result of the ability to tap into these universal trends — in our instance, demonstrating that the desire for quality sleep transcends borders.
Many aspects ensure a business is set up for long-term success, from fostering innovation, to building resilience and having a clear vision and values. But staying ahead of the curve and adapting to trends and market changes is crucial.
That’s why we’ve gone beyond selling mattresses to develop the concept of ‘Premium Sleep’. This concept rejects the common misconception that ‘sleep is for the weak’, but rather an essential act that replenishes, repairs and restores. This has enabled us to embrace the growing conversation around sleep wellness and respond with innovative solutions that serve people’s evolving needs.
Our journey has taken us from simply offering physical products to creating a comprehensive Sleep Wellness Centre — a source of information to inspire and motivate people who want to improve their lives through better sleep — alongside offering Sleep Wellness workshops for businesses to equip them with knowledge and approaches to help nurture employees’ sleep wellness.
My great-great-grandfather saw not only a business opportunity in sleep but also a chance to make a positive impact on people’s lives. He understood the right rest is fundamental to a healthier, happier world — and that’s a philosophy we continue to champion today.
Yet, four in 10 Australian adults still aren’t getting the quality or quantity of sleep they need so we still have a long way to go. As we’ve learned over the last 125 years, the key to success is constant innovation, adapting to consumer needs, and listening closely to the trends shaping the world around us. Here’s to the next 125 years — we’ll keep pushing forward to help everyone get the rest they deserve and experience the necessity of Premium Sleep.
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Rachel Beard is the Sleep Wellness Manager at A H Beard, a 125-year-old family business.
