In this issue of Building & Construction Review, we are honoured to select Wallbed Systems for demonstrating Commitment to Excellence throughout the wall bed hardware design industry.
For hotel, hospitality or commercial spaces looking to maximise interior spaces, wall beds offer ingenious, creative design solutions. Wallbed Systems Ltd is a leading UK business, with a global outlook, offering smartly concealed sleeping areas for optimised and multipurpose living.
The London-based company designs, manufactures and distributes in-house wall bed ranges and related hardware kits, including bed frames in all standard sizes and the indispensable mechanism to perfectly balance the safe opening and closing of the bed. Wallbed System’s Managing Director: Jeremy Waller has previous considerable expertise selling beds and mattresses across the Asian continent. This opened his eyes to the global sales potential of wall beds but with the added benefit of comfortable mattresses, for a perfect night’s sleep, as Jeremy explains,
“Many wall bed designs have traditionally used gas lifts- similar to ones you have on the car tailgate. We decided to design our own springs, when we started nearly 20 years ago and have since produced over one million springs to date. These springs are intrinsically durable, offering vastly improved longevity.
Due to the nature of our signature spring system, our wall beds can cope with heavier loads and larger mattresses, including the heavier hybrid designs used increasingly today, with high density foams and smaller pocketed mattress springs. This means there is never a compromise on comfort, whether you are using a wall bed in a five-star hotel, at home for guests, or just want to free up space in a bedroom. The adjustability of the load capability, by easily adding or taking away springs to match the loading, allows precise balancing of significant loads.
Our wall beds can be seen in many five-star hotels, Airbnb’s, furnished and unfurnished property developments, student accommodation and luxury residences around the globe.”
The hardware is cleverly adapted by adding different cabinet designs and materials to a basic dimensional design, allowing ongoing customisation. The team at Wallbed Systems have more than 3000 kits in stock at any one time and can ship any quantity ordered quickly via pallet or container worldwide, when required. The secret to the success of Wallbed Systems is designing kits for specific sectors, from smaller cabinet makers, furniture producers or freestanding wall beds direct to customers, using clever engineering expertise.
“We hold and can supply developers and designers with an array of cabinet designs for them to draw from and be inspired by based on our current portfolio of wall beds installed around the world: designs can be made available showcasing wall beds in Europe, Japan, Australia, the UAE and India and elsewhere. These show the range of materials used in cabinetry, highlight our range of additional accessories and showcase the unlimited possibilities to add to our basic module so that they can create unique end products to reflect local preferences and project requirements. Our clients spread across 20 countries demonstrate a wealth of innovation and of who are content to share ideas and pool creativity with one another,” added Jeremy.
Wallbed Systems Ltd. were able to remain busy during the COVID-19 global pandemic since many domestic customers had the reflective downtime to transform spare rooms as well as with the hospitality sector being forced to redefine and redevelop interior spaces during the working from home and staycation phenomena. With the factory capability recently upgraded, the Wallbed Systems production team were able to meet soaring demand, during this challenging time.
Whilst lockdown restrictions have since been fully lifted, the cost-of-living crisis has now instead taken centre-stage, impacting many businesses and sectors around the world.
“Last year we maintained our sales growth and while this year is not looking quite so strong, we are in fact continuing to expand our footprint more widely across the globe.
Product development has now regained impetus and we have numerous product developments underway to add to the range from 2024. The most important shift has been the mantra we developed three years ago, namely to ‘democratise’ wall beds, in other words, to make them more accessible.
In everyday terms, this has meant analysing costs, but also recognising that cabinet cost and installation were factors often out of our control, and largely dictated by traditional approaches in an industry which had not really changed since the wall bed was invented early in the 20th century,” explained Jeremy.
The original wall bed models came from the USA over one hundred years ago and Wallbed Systems has gone to great lengths to balance tradition with innovation as Jeremy outlines,
“There has been innovation of course, but change has been slow and our newer designs opened the way to a more maverick approach: to re-evaluate the cabinet designs, the materials, and the way they are sold. Traditional thinking is always a challenge to real innovation – we are all guilty of not wanting change, but we need to embrace it fully, which we have tried to do. One of the hardest things is to implement change in an industry and to overcome tradition. It means understanding associated industries including: engineering, manufacturing, and the whole bedding industry. Trial and error can be frustrating and we have to get better at accepting design failure and then successively adapting it.”
The future looks bright for Wallbed Systems, with travel restrictions now being fully lifted across the globe, allowing for fruitful face-to-face client meetings to begin again. Though Zoom and other technological advancements have their place, Jeremy and his team prefer the more traditional in-person visits, which offer a wider customer service experience.
“We are regarded as a major player in the hardware sector, and we don’t want to divert too far from our core skills. It is a fragmented and a niche market and one that needs global coverage and we have made some significant marketing investments in helping reach these new markets, as we have lots of opportunity for growth.
We strive for excellence with everything we do: many of our partners and clients have been with us now for approaching 15 years, and we have a high level of mutual reliance and support.
There is nothing like a client providing positive feedback about something we have done, or our responses. I try and respond personally to enquiries, to better understand a client’s aims and needs, and find a solution that works for them. I find investing time in this sets the scene for a longer relationship. Being able to respond quickly to requirements of some urgency is also something our team do well, throughout our supply chain.”
For more information on the full product range and cabinet designs or to contact Jeremy Waller directly, see the details below:
T +44 (0)208 704 5796
T +44 (0)7780 661958
jeremy.waller@wallbedsystems.co.uk
www.wallbedsystems.co.uk