John Mackenzie memorial

A memorial service to celebrate the life of John MacKenzie, former NBF President and MD of Sealy, Slumberland and Sleepeezee, is to be held at 12 noon on Thursday 5 February 2015, at Holy Trinity Church, High Street, Bramley, Guildford GU5 0HD.

Those wishing to attend (and planning to stay for something to eat afterwards) should contact Jessica Alexander at the NBF on info@bedfed.org.uk or 01756 799950 so an idea of numbers can be obtained on behalf of the family.

It is John’s wish that those attending the service should wear bright colours, not black.

John, who was born in Greenock in 1935 and in his early career served as a police officer there, was a stalwart of the bed industry for almost 30 years. He joined Rest Assured as Marketing Director and from 1976-1986 was Managing Director of Sealy United Kingdom within the Silentnight Group, establishing the US brand as a leading player in the UK market.

After a brief sojourn as MD at Slumberland, John moved to Sleepeezee in 1987, when it was part of Christie-Tyler and also served on the main CT board. He became Chairman of French-owned Continental Sleep Holdings in 1995, which purchased Sleepeezee, Cumfilux and Nestledown (now known as the Simmons Group).

John was passionate about the bed industry as a whole and served on the National Bed Federation Council for many years and as its president in 1988-9, where he steered through its name change, taking the ‘ding’ out of Bedding to make it the National Bed Federation.

He was a keen shot and took part in many Big Shots clay pigeon shooting events, raising money for the the furnishing industry charity FTBA, now The Furniture Makers’ Company. He retired in 2000.