Sleep Country is putting its run as a public company to bed.
What happened: Toronto-based Fairfax Financial agreed to buy Sleep Country, Canada’s top retailer in everything sleep-related, for $1.7 billion. If the deal is approved, the company will delist from the TSX, which means the index would sadly lose its best stock ticker: ZZZ.
- The snoozing biz has long been of interest to private equity firms thanks to high margins and consistent buying patterns, per industry newsletter The Burning Bed.
Why it matters: Sleep Country has a 35% to 40% market share of the Canadian mattress sector, the company’s CEO told the Financial Post in 2022. With a deep-pocketed new owner and an appetite for acquisitions, it could soon expand its dominance even further.
- The company has already made moves into new revenue streams, like acquiring the Canadian operations of bed-in-a-box company Casper last year for US$20.6 million.
Zoom out: Sleep Country is also experimenting with new retail presences. Last year, it opened the first physical store for its direct-to-consumer mattress brand Endy and unveiled The Rest, a store targeting higher-end shoppers with a luxury experience and bougie sleep products.—QH
