Cheltenham-based online bedding company celebrates record sales

Published by

Nicky Godding

New bedding brand Bedfolk has risen to the challenge of consumers looking to upgrade their comfort in lockdown, after seeing sales increase by 850 percent during April and May.

The Gloucestershire-based company has just celebrated its second birthday with record sales. Established as a direct-to-consumer business in 2018 by couple Jo and Nick James, Bedfolk uses 100 per cent natural cotton and linen, and puts responsible manufacturing and ethical trading are at its heart.

“We were seeing strong online sales before lockdown with growth increasing by 500 per cent year on year,” explained co-founder Nick James. “Interiors is an area that has reported good sales during lockdown as consumers focus on their home surroundings and invest in items to keep them comfortable in uncertain times.

“We’ve seen an uplift in sales across the board in terms of age demographic and we’ve seen a particulary big boom in over 55s shopping with us! All of the adopted technology for family video calls is clearly leading to more confidence with online sales.”

Earlier this year, Bedfolk moved to a new office space in Cheltenham to allow room for its growing team, warehouse space for stock and a photography studio to support new launches.

Nick added: “The growth we have seen this year, and particularly in the past few months, has allowed us to bring forward recruitment and investment plans so that we can continue to grow in 2020. We launched our second collection, a linen range, earlier this year and we sold out within a couple of weeks. Our team has now grown to five and we are already planning seasonal launches well into 2021 to extend our range further.”

Bedfolk is dedicated to creating the kind of heritage-grade sheets that its family-run, Portuguese mill partner has been passing down between generations. Focused on sourcing the finest calibre materials, Bedfolk bedding is ethically woven from the finest Belgian and French flax.

All Bedfolk bedding is Oeko-Tex certified, meaning it is manufactured to the strictest of environmental and social standards without harmful substances.

Nicky Godding

Nicky Godding is editor of The Business Magazine. Before her journalism career, she worked mainly in public relations moving into writing when she was invited to launch Retail Watch, a publication covering retail and real estate across Europe. After some years of constant travelling, she tucked away her passport and concentrated on business writing, co-founding a successful regional business magazine. She has interviewed some of the UK’s most successful entrepreneurs who have built multi-million-pound businesses and reported on many science and technology firsts. She reports on the region’s thriving business economy from start-ups, family businesses and multi-million-pound corporations, to the professionals that support their growth and the institutions that educate the next generation of business leaders.