YPIE Tour Blog Day Three: Ercol & Hypnos

Tom Thurston from Silentnight discusses what the Young Professional Industry Experience group learnt on their trip to Ercol and Hypnos on Thursday 2 June.

We started the morning off at the factory of heritage furniture brand Ercol. After an introduction from Ercol Chairman Edward Tadros, Jack, a previous YPIE participant, gave us a detailed tour around the factory.

One of Ercol’s unique selling points is wood bending. This can be done in a variety of ways but their most prominent way is by hand.

We then watched an expert sand back a piece of wood. The session was then capped off by two members of the design team, including Dylan Freeth, who was recently awarded a Design Guild Mark, giving us an overview of their design process and a tour of their product portfolio in the showroom.

We learnt about the emphasis and value that Ercol place on their British manufacturing and the family run nature of the business.

After the morning session at Ercol, we arrived at Hypnos – another Princes Risborough-based company.  Clive introduced himself and then gave us a short presentation on the history of the brand and the product portfolio. Amy from the marketing team then spoke to us about their marketing strategies and brand awareness.

We then had an in-depth and interactive tour of how the mattresses and divans were made, encouraging us to get more involved and tuft the mattresses! We then tried out Hypnos’ product range and were impressed with the level of comfort and variety.

We learnt a lot about the different natural fillings that are used within Hypnos. These allow the components to breathe and reduces the amount of moisture in the mattress.

Both Ercol and Hypnos are centred on being family run businesses which are privately funded and run. Both companies rely on their workforce and the skill sets they have, to deliver the high end products they do.