Blackburn firm launches mattress rejuvenation service

The Furniture Recycling Group has launched a new service which will save the tens of thousands of mattresses which are returned to retailers from going to waste.

In recent years, it has become popular for companies to sell mattresses with a satisfaction guarantee which allows the items to be returned after an extended period of time.

Ecommerce sales, which typically don't give customers the option to try before they buy, have seen the number of mattresses returned increase in recent years. In 2018, 85,000 mattresses were returned by customers.

Blackburn-based TFR Group already specialised in diverting end-of-life mattresses from landfill, recycling 12,000 units each week. Its newly-launched service is designed to rejuvenate mattresses which are still suitable for sale. 

The process will see retailers book for TFR Group to collect its returned mattresses, adhering to a strict and fully transparent audit trail. Next, TFR Group will take the mattresses through a thorough quality inspection to deem those suitable for rejuvenation and those which will become recycled.

TFR Group predicts its new divisions will bring additional revenue and jobs over the next 12 months, with profits reinvested into its innovative research and development programme that is focused on fine-tuning the mattress recycling and rejuvenation process.

TFR Group is already working with a range of well-established retail partners including Simba, Eve Sleep and Nectar. Currently the firm is rejuvenating around 900 traditional and bed in a box mattresses per week, and also rejuvenates pillows, duvets and weighted blankets too.

Nick Oettinger, CEO and founder of TFR Group, said: "Our rejuvenation and new recommerce arm will help our retail partners to recoup the losses from product returns.

"We have been a loyal mattress recycling partner to our retail clients for more than a decade now, helping them to achieve sustainability targets, and now their bottom line. Through our strong growth and research and development programme, we’re delighted we have expanded so we can offer more services to our clients too."