West Elm and Leesa take their partnership overseas

Dive Brief:

Leesa Sleep and West Elm are expanding their partnership to the United Kingdom, where Leesa pillows and mattresses manufactured in England can now be found at the three U.K. West Elm stores at Tottenham Court Road, Westfield London and Kingston Upon Thames, the companies said Thursday.
The move builds on a collaboration forged in the U.S. last year, according to a press release from the companies. West Elm parted ways with Casper to partner with Leesa last fall.
As with their U.S. deal, the companies are donating bedding, which is part of Leesa's operations as a B Corp. Leesa donates one mattress for every ten sold, and next month the companies are providing an additional 50 mattresses to London-based charity, the Single Homeless Project, the companies said.

Dive Insight:

Casper has been the mattress startup grabbing headlines of late, with a marketing stance that encompasses sleep itself, ambitious plans to expand its physical store footprint in North America, major inroads into Canada and a tie-up with Target, which is also an investor.

But nothing's put to bed in the turbulent mattress market these days. The expansion of the West Elm-Leesa partnership comes after what the companies on Thursday called "a breakout year for Leesa." The startup snagged a £17.6 million ($22.4 in today's exchange) round of Series B funding, appointed former Seventh Generation CEO John Replogle and former Rent the Runway President and COO Beth Kaplan to its board, and landed on Forbes' list of Next Billion Dollar Startups.

E-commerce mattress newcomers like Leesa, Casper, Purple, Tuft & Needle and others have disrupted legacy players as sales move online. Mattress Firm, for example, is now reportedly contemplating a bankruptcy filing as it looks for a way to shed expensive store leases and shutter underperforming locations.

Mass merchants are also eying mattress sales, as they look to increase furniture and home goods sales. Amazon, for example, launched two furniture brands in November, and earlier this year, Walmart announced a new in-house mattress brand, Allswell, as part of a revamped online home destination effort.