Bedding and more

Ms Silvana Pisani; Director – Sales & Marketing, Pisani Bedding & Upholstery Co. Ltd; Royalty Bedding

A comfortable mattress makes it all the harder to actually get up in the mornings. If that is your line of thought, modify it slightly. The goal of a good night’s sleep is to rejuvenate, recharge and refresh, thus making waking up in the morning a refreshing joy and not a laborious burden. And a good bed’s springs should be felt in your step not its structure.

There’s no greater deterrent to good sleep than a bed which you hate spending time, and waking up in. Royalty Bedding have therefore encompassed together all matters related to beddings; a holistic approach, if you like, to creating a wonderful rapport between you and your sleep.

Design & Build visited Royalty Bedding, a family concern now in its third generation, who love their bedding, quite literally. Priding themselves on their ability to innovate and yet have very competitive prices, the Pisanis are first and foremost committed to bring a renewed joy to sleeping and to waking up in the mornings; freshly invigorated and ready to face any onslaughts the day may bring.

Silvana Pisani leads the Sales and Marketing team of Royalty Bedding. Bubbly and outgoing, she is the person who looks after clients and secures orders. “I have always wanted to do this,” she smiles. Silvana’s mission is “to see every customer absolutely thrilled with their sleeping comfort and happiness.” She recalls that ever since she was a child she would trail after her father and beg to be taken to fairs and wherever else it was feasible for him to take her. She remembers playing at ‘helping clients’ and feels that the company work is in her blood. One could say that this venture was first set up in the 1950s by the grandfather of the present generation of Pisanis, Anthony Pisani, who had set up a mattress manufacturing concern. However, in 1992, the second generation placed the company on more formal grounds and Pisani Bedding & Upholstery Co. Ltd was thus founded. A well and trusted family name in the bedding trade for over seventy years, the Pisanis were therefore pioneers and leaders in manufacturing,, in integrating proved technological improvements, and in importing – and exporting – top quality brands of all kinds of mattresses.

JOINING FORCES

Silvana Pisani explained that as years passed, Pisani Bedding & Upholstery Co. Ltd have come to be known as Royalty Bedding for their most sought after Royalty Mattresses.

Nowadays, the company is run by three of the four Pisani siblings: Silvana who takes care of sales and marketing, Leighton who heads the production and Michela who takes care of the human resources. And whilst the fourth sibling, Alexia had a different vocation, she always helps in the family concern when the need arises, explained Silvana Pisani.

Mario Pisani, Silvana’s father and one of the original Pisani Brothers, explained that the company has now grown to the point that it exports regularly. It targets markets like Libya and other international hotel-centric countries. He added that the company has always been agile in response to changing markets and innovation “while always paying the greatest tribute to our heritage; our local markets”.

A CONCERN FOR THE CLIENT

The company’s clients range from the domestic to the high-end commercial such as boutique hotels. “We are not just interested in selling to the client. This is not simply my job but it is my life and my vocation. I make it a point to ensure that our clients are well informed in the decisions they are taking,” said Silvana Pisani. Her love for the product she sells is evident even in the language she uses. “I see the mattress being born, so to speak, I see it in the making and I see the finished product,” she explained. This involvement in the various stages of the manufacture places her in an excellent position to pitch the company wares well and honestly.

The Pisanis adopt a discrete approach to the sales pitch. While obviously knowing their product, quite literally, inside out, both Mario and Silvana Pisani said that badgering a client is not a good idea. In Malta, they noted, the culture is allergic to insistent and invasive sales pitches; the Maltese client likes to ask and appreciates that the sales staff are knowledgeable on the product. Honesty about the product, they said, is paramount. “When the client is satisfied, that is the best form of recommendation,” smiled Mario Pisani clasping his hands in the fashion of a satisfied producer while speaking. He added that the clients need to be careful when choosing a mattress to make sure that the product is good for the conditions in Malta.

“When the client is satisfied, that is the best form of recommendation”

Mario Pisani

Another aspect of honesty is the emphasis the company makes on timely delivery. “We stick to our deadlines,” said Silvana, “and we abhor delays. We also have the warehousing capacity to make sure that the supply stream is not interrupted.”

TESTING THE PRODUCT

With a product that is so important to human well-being, nothing is left to chance. Product development, Mario explained, is the result of testing and trials. “We test the fabrics we use, we test the materials we use for the inside of the mattress, we test the springs, we test the felt, we test everything,”

While the company is effectively run by the younger Pisanis, Silvana said that her father has yet a very important role to play in the company. “While he is largely a behind-the-scenes contributor, we greatly value his experience in the field and in product development,” said Silvana who described her father with much pride as her mentor.

AN EVOLUTION IN MATTRESSES

Progress happens in every sphere of life even in the matter of bedding. “Our attendance to fairs ensures that we keep ourselves up to date in the latest developments and technologies in the field of bedding,” Silvana explained. She added that the target is to improve the client’s experience of the mattress. Indeed, the mattress spring has undergone considerable evolution; a factor which has been prevalent throughout Royalty Bedding’s long history of manufacture.

The gauge of the spring wire has grown smaller and the Bonell spring, still in existence and used by the industry, is now being replaced by the pocket spring. The name says it all, really: the spring is placed in a pocket and each spring is independent from its neighbours. This enables the mattress to take individual body weight and adapt itself to an anatomical shape. This has also impacted the developments and improvements in this essential product.

Nowadays micro-springs are also being introduced but these are still considered as innovative in the Maltese market, Silvana explained.

“We stick to our deadlines and we abhor delays”

Silvana Pisani

Royalty Bedding is the sole manufacturer of polyurethane for supply to upholsterers and for use in the manufacture of memory foam combinations in various densities, as well as for manufacture of Royalty Bedding mattresses. It is therefore a matter of choice, guided by Silvana’s intervention with the client, whether to opt for pocket springs, memory foam, or a combination of both. “In fact, Silvana tells us, “a very popular, and recommended solution, is a pocket spring mattress, of the rigidity wanted by the client, and embellished with a memory foam ‘topper’.”

THE BEST RAW MATERIALS

“We constantly strive to import and work with the very best products, which also have optimum price to quality ratios,” said Silvana. Mario chimed in: “We are very careful to use the best since we do not want the product to develop problems neither at manufacturing stage nor after having been utilised by our client.” He emphasised that Royalty Bedding is also meticulous in the preparation of the mattress’ innards for all factors related to healthy sleeping, so that the well-being of the sleeper is truly protected. “This means that when we claim that the mattress is anti-bed mite and anti-allergens, then it truly is so,” he said. Mario added that Royalty Bedding was first in introducing anti-bed mite treatment in Malta. “This includes the processing of the bedding material in a special oven to ensure that bed mites cannot thrive in the mattress.”

A BED MADE IN MALTA

Silvana Pisani said that the company had invested considerably in its ability to manufacture quality products over the years. She added that while the Bonnell Spring is still used in some models, the gauge of the wire chosen by the company is not of the lean kind. The choice to a more competent wire gauge; a steel type which maintains strength at thinner girths, was made to ensure durability for the mattress. While this is reflected in the price, the quality too is vastly improved.

With a product that is so important to human wellbeing, nothing is left to chance

Keeping ahead of the game also meant that the showroom had to rightfully portray a successful and affluent company: 1,260 square metres of showroom space dedicated to sleep on totally Made in Malta mattresses. Mario Pisani emphasised that the competitive prices of the bedding products come from the fact that they sell directly to the clients. There are no middleman fees.

INVESTMENT IN MACHINES AND PEOPLE

Mario weighed in with the training which the company invests in, in its human resources. Several aspects of the manufacturing process are hand made and the training on these sections is carried out in-house and on a oneto-one basis to ensure that the best traditions and methodologies are maintained. Still involved in the process, Mario described that when packing the material around a spring, when closing a mattress, these activities are hand made not machine made. While most of modern factories are fully automated, Royalty Bedding seeks to retain this artisanal approach to quality. He added that the company only works with suppliers who are reputable.

SHELF LIFE

Changing a mattress at least every eight to ten years is highly recommended. “After this milestone,” said Mario, “the anti-bed mite treatment and the fire retardancy start to decline rapidly depending on the individuals who would have been making use of it.” He said that rental properties and hotels would do well to consider Royalty Bedding since bed mite infestations must force hotel closure and disinfestation, and Royalty Bedding’s anti-bed mite proofing helps reduce the risks of allergens especially since travellers bring these with them on their clothing.

INNOVATION

Priding themselves on their ability to identify market niches, the Pisanis have horizontally diversified in manners which corroborate their core products. They have now also introduced beds to meet various needs. One such is the TV bed. Where space is at a premium, the TV bed also contains storage and, most uniquely, pops up a TV and a high-quality multi-media entertainment system from the footboard. Mario Pisani said even this was modified to ensure that the area under the bed can be washed with water as is the wont of Maltese households.

These activities are hand made not machine made … Royalty Bedding seeks to retain this artisanal approach to quality

Memory foam ‘toppers’ are another wanted innovation, as are also their motorised beds with Ergomotion, which provide massage and help with sleep apnoea. The bed, said Silvana, helps monitor the sleep patterns and therefore assists medical practitioners in their diagnostics. The Pisanis also entered into a partnership with a pillow manufacturer to ensure that the sleeping experience is the best.

WHAT’S NEXT?

We want to increase clients and keep up the success which our father and grandfather made out of this company, said Silvana Pisani. She said that fear of innovation is the worst form of fear and the future beckons. Like her father, she believes in “the personal and the human touch, and the constant need for keeping in tune with the market.”