Simmons ranks third among U.S. mattress manufacturers, with a 15.7 percent market share in 2011(Bartz, 2013). The company was founded in 1870 by Zalmon Gilbert Simmons as a family business. Innovation had always been a most important driving force in the history of Simmons's business. During the first years, they manufactured the first mass-produced woven wire mattresses and they were able to make mattresses affordable with the introduction of spiral coil springs into the woven mattresses. In 1925, John Franklin Gail, Simmons' engineer, designed a machine that had pocketed the coil inserts into the fabric sleeves faster. This discovery steered them toward to the birth of the Beautyrest mattress, Simmons' flagship brand (Simmons Bedding Company, 2014) .In 1958, Simmons Company became the first retailer to introduce king and queen size mattresses into our lives (Simmons Bedding Company, 2014). After 1978, Simmons stopped being a family-run business and it changed many hands. In 1998, Fenway Partners bought Simmons and aimed to develop customers and partners by raising industry and market awareness. Fenway Partners searched for new leadership and appointed Charlie Eitel as the CEO of the company in late 1999. .
New Leadership and the Challenges in First Six Months.
Eitel had a track record of turning companies around. On the other hand, Eitel had all of his experience in the floor-covering business and he had no bedding industry involvement. Right after taking over the company, he launched a $9 million ad campaign on a redesigned version of Beautyrest. Simmons received an immediate 25 percent increase in sales. In addition to the great success in sales, he spent a lot of time and resources to change the organizational structure at Simmons in his first months at Simmons. He also worked on blending a new set of core values that reflected his philosophy of leadership to the Simmons' culture.
