The rest of the Olympic Warriors
Founded in California, USA, in 2005, Ergomotion® quickly expanded into international markets, leading to the opening of offices around the globe. The company's first European office was established in Vilnius, Lithuania, due to its proximity to the first markets it entered (Lithuania,Latvia, Germany, and Russia) and those with the most growth potential.
After nearly ten years of operations in Europe and two decades globally, the decision was made to move all European operations to Lisbon. Since April 2023, the European headquarters of the company, which produces Smart & Adjustable bed bases, have been located in the Portuguese capital.
“The growth of markets and regions managed by thisoffice, as well as the team’s expansion and Portugal’s geographical advantages,led to this move,” explains Mónica Araújo, Marketing Director of Ergomotion®.
Since its inception, Ergomotion® has focused on the B2B market, developing sleep technology. With an annual production capacity of two million Smart & Adjustable bed bases—set to double to four million by 2025—the company is well-equipped to supply the world’s leading mattress manufacturers and bedding retailers. Pikolin and Tempur are some well-known brands Ergomotion® serves.
Ergomotion® currently operates three factories—located in China, Mexico, and Vietnam—dedicated solely to producing Smart & Adjustablebed bases, the company's core product. Additionally, Ergomotion® offers mattresses and pillows to enhance the online shopping experience, manufactured by a specialized factory from the same group as Ergomotion®.
In 2022, Ergomotion® launched its first direct-to-consumer sales experience through an online channel, featuring the ErgoSportive bed, the same model that equipped the rooms of Team Portugal athletes for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
In the Eurozone, any consumer can buy a Smart & Adjustable bed from Ergomotion®. However, even though the company operates in 50 countries on a B2B basis, only about 1% of sales are from online channels. It is expectedt hat online sales will increase in the future.
For Ergomotion®, Portugal is an ideal location to host clients from various markets due to the proximity of the Lisbon airport, its flight connections, and the city's appeal in terms of climate, cuisine, and culture—elements that provide clients with positive experiences. “We are in an environment and climate that embraces the Californian spirit, something the company values globally,” says Mónica Araújo.
Over the past five years, Ergomotion® has recruited significant Portuguese talent, strengthening the company's commitment to the country. The management of all EMEA (Europe, Middle East, and Africa) markets, as well as Russia and Latin America, is now centralized in Lisbon, with some team members working remotely from Brazil, Lithuania, China, and the USA.
The opening of the Lisbon office also marked the inauguration of a B2B-focused showroom, allowing the company to showcase product and system innovations. In 2023, its first year operating from Portugal, Ergomotion® surpassed €11 million in revenue, not yet including activity in Latin America, which has been managed from Portugal since 2024.
Surprisingly, when looking at the markets Ergomotion® operates from Portugal, notable growth potential is seen in the Middle East, United Kingdom, and Russia. As interesting case studies, Iceland—a country with fewer than 400,000 in habitants—has shown surprisingly high demand for SmartBeds. Similarly, Spain has exhibited significant growth in purchasing these products.
Although the Portuguese market is yet to be strategically important for the company, but "there is room for growth through online sales in the near term".
Ergomotion®’s R&D department develops innovative products and tests technologies to address real sleep problems that impact the quality of rest. The company is committed to investing in sustained research and development to create solutions that improve people's lives globally.
Ergomotion®’s product line consists of Smart & Adjustable beds with various functionalities that position them across different price points and benefit levels. The focus is increasing the number of bed bases with Smart Systems (sleep monitoring sensors), which will drive future product launches.
The company's short- to mid-term goal is for all Ergomotion® Adjustable Beds to integrate this Smart System and connect to platforms like Garmin, Apple, Google, and Samsung, a feature currently exclusive to the ErgoSportive model.
This model offers benefits in terms of physical and mental recovery for athletes through different adjustable positions and features. From the “Zero Gravity” position—a predefined setting in Ergomotion® beds—to customizable adjustments for leg and back/head areas, the benefits are numerous, including reduced pressure on joints, improved circulation, muscle relaxation, and enhanced breathing.
Ergomotion® was chosen as the Official Sleep Partner of Team Portugal for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, providing 62 ErgoSportive beds for Portuguese athletes.
By providing exceptional sleep conditions for the athletes, Ergomotion® aims to ensure a restorative rest that improves physical recovery, leading to better performance and success for the Portuguese Olympic team.
For the Portuguese athletes, Ergomotion® aimed to ensure unique resting conditions, allowing for restorative sleep and better physical recovery, which would enhance performance and lead to the success of the Portuguese Olympic team.
Since its launch in 2022, the integrated system in this bed has undergone several developments, making it compatible with ecosystems such as Garmin, Apple, Google, and Samsung.
All this technology allows the user to have a 24/7 view oftheir health metrics, combining the data measured by gadgets used by athletes with those recorded by the bed's integrated sensor, including light and deep sleep periods, heart rate, breathing, and even calories burned during the night.
"There is still a long way to go before we all fully understand the importance of sleep for overall well-being, but, fortunately, we are witnessing a global increase in awareness of the real impact of quality sleep on daily life. This is also evident in the growing number of tools related to the topic and the existing support resources.
Indeed, sleep health has recently gained greater prominence in Portuguese society, a trend supported by the increasing number of specialist doctors and the consequent rise in credible information about sleep available through podcasts, studies, and reports. These resources, based on scientific evidence, explore the problems associated with poor sleep quality,its causes, consequences, and its actual impact on our lives.
We believe there is still room for growth in this awareness, and Ergomotion®, across all its actions, is committed to affirming that sleep is, and will increasingly be, inseparable from the core pillars of well-being, alongside nutrition and physical exercise," comments Mónica Araújo, Marketing Director at Ergomotion®.
This article was originally published by Marketeer. You can find the original article on their platform https://marketeer.sapo.pt/.
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