Our focus is on continuous innovation, says K Madhavan, MD, Peps Industries 

K Madhavan, Managing Director, Peps Industries has nearly 40 years of experience in the mattress industry. He is one of the pioneers in bringing the concept of branded mattresses to India. 

Peps is currently the largest spring mattress company in India, with over 140 exclusive retail outlets spread all across the country and a dealer network going beyond borders to Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Nepal. 

In a conversation with exchange4media, Madhavan said customers must recognise the importance of choosing the right mattress for a sound sleep. “Mattress is an investment, not expenditure,” he said. 

Excerpts:

The brand’s journey 
Peps was built on the platform of disruptive innovation. While the country was depending on conventional mattresses, we three partners visualised that it was time to bring international comfort and luxury in the mattress industry to our country. Nearly 70 per cent of the world’s population prefers sleeping on a metal spring mattress because it is an engineered one with no bio-degradation. A mattress could also be made to the comfort of the people based on research and development. 

What Peps did was, it brought international comfort to India, made it affordable, easy to access, and adaptable to the choice of Indian consumers. My experience of around 40 years in the mattress industry tells me that Indian consumers prefer to sleep on a firm mattress, while people residing abroad prefer soft mattresses. 

We made the metal spring mattresses neither hard nor soft, and made them firm. From a company with a turnover of Rs 4 to 5 crore, in the last financial year we stood at a turnover of Rs 475 crore. 

Customer interaction and overcoming challenges 
The width of the mattress industry in India stands somewhere between Rs 8,000-10,000 crore for a population of 1.32 billion. This is because customers are not interacting with products per se as these products are given the least importance. This is despite people being well aware of the fact that a good sleep is what determines how effective and efficient their next day is. This is mainly because mattress manufacturers are only focusing on the importance of building the brand. We were not creating awareness among consumers about the importance of sleep. 

What Peps did was through our campaigns, advertisements and promotional activities, we started talking about the importance of good sleep. We said that ‘if you wanted to dream big, you need to have great sleep’. Our campaigns and brand promotions speak about the results of a good night’s sleep. 

On fake products
There is an old saying ‘Imitation is the best form of appreciation’. People who appreciate our products, business policies and ethics tend to imitate us. All said and done, imitation is unavoidable. As a brand we can only work day and night to maintain a difference between our brand and the competitors. And this can be achieved only though continuous innovation and that has been our focus. 

Expectations in the coming years 
We want to cross the Rs 1,000-crore barrier as quickly as possible, but that will not be possible without a bit of breathing period. For the coming year, we are targeting a turnover of Rs 700-750 crore and hopefully we will be able to cross the Rs 1000-crore barrier by 2022.