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Sleep Country Canada |
| Type | Public |
|---|---|
| Headquarters |  Toronto, Ontario, Canada |
| Key people | Stephen K. Gunn |
| Market cap | 308 million USD1 |
| Employees | 6741 |
| Website | www.sleepcountry.ca |
Sleep Country Canada (TSX: Z.UN) is a major mattress retailer in Canada, with 148 stores operating in British Columbia, Alberta, Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Ontario.
The company was ranked one of the top 50 companies to work for in Canada by the Globe and Mail. It is best known for its radio jingle, "Why buy a mattress anywhere else?"
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In an interview with Business Edge News Magazine, Gordon Lownds describes the company's beginnings like this,
"My business partner Steve Gunn and I were involved in investment banking, and one of the transactions that we had done was the leveraged buyout of the Simmons Canada mattress company. We bought that company in 1990 with the financial backing of CIBC Wood Gundy and the Mannix family of Calgary. Through our involvement with that, we focused on the fact that the distribution channels to the consumer (for mattresses) were not particularly effective. So, we decided to sell out ownership in Simmons in 1994 and set up Sleep Country Canada."
Lownds went on to say,
"We had known Christine in her days as a banker at National Bank, where she was actually a lender for a couple of buyout transactions we had done. For a number of reasons, we were looking for a third partner who longer-term could take over and run the business on a permanent basis. She fit the bill on a number of fronts. I was convinced that she wasn't a lifelong banker because she had more entrepreneurial spirit than I would expect in a banker."
In 1994, the three partners Christine Magee, Steven Gunn and Gordon Lownds launched the first four Sleep Country locations in Vancouver. By 1996 the chain had expanded to Toronto with 19 new stores. Growth continued at quick rate. By 2001, the company had 72 stores in six regional markets and an estimated 40% of the market in regions where it operated. In 2003, Sleep Country converted in to an income trust. This raised nearly $130 million (C$) in an initial public offering.
In 2006 the company made two acquisitions. In January, it purchased Dormez-vous Sleep Centres Inc. with five stores in Montreal. In March, it added 32 stores in the US through the completion of an acquisition of Sleep America Inc., the leading mattress retailer in Arizona.
On August 14, 2008, The Canadian Press reported that two Toronto-based investment firms, Birch Hill Equity Partners Management Inc. and Westerkirk Capital Inc., made a friendly takeover offer worth $356 million (CAD) for all the units of the Sleep Country Canada Income Fund, the parent company of Sleep Country Canada.2
Sleep Country supports numerous charities and community initiatives across Canada. Some of the programs in which they are involved include:
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