SCC completes Endy acquisition with performance pay

1 April 2021 HGO Staff

TORONTO – Sleep Country Canada Holdings (SCC), this country’s largest specialty mattress retailer, has completed its acquisition of Endy after issuing performance pay of $25 million to the founders of the pure-play e-commerce bedding merchant.

In a statement, the publicly held SCC said the payment “is testimony to Endy’s strong outperformance of all get growth and profitability targets in 2020.”

Since coming online in 2015, SCC said Endy has generated some $250 million in revenue and has become this country’s leading online mattress brand as well as one of its fastest growing retail brands. It has sold more than 250,000 mattresses over the past six years with a nationwide average delivery time of 3.2 days from when the order is accepted.

Sleep Country Canada Holdings has completed its acquisition of e-commerce mattress merchant Endy with the payout of a $25 million performance bonus to its founders. Seen here is a Endy mattress display at Urban Barn, a Vancouver-based furniture specialist with stores across the country. In largest investment since its founding almost 30 years ago, SCC acquired Endy in November 2018 for $88.7 million, paying $63.7 million in cash at closing as well as a bonus of up to $25 million at the close of the first quarter of 2021, based on whether it achieved previously agree ambitious growth and profitability targets.

SCC senior management said Endy surpassed every set metric since the deal was signed.

“I am incredibly proud of a landmark year for Endy in 2020,” Endy co-founder Rajen Ruparell said in a statement. “What we have achieved is a testament to our brilliant team and our relentless focus on customer experience. We believe we are still in the early stages of building a truly iconic Canadian brand.

The acquisition also marks a milestone in SCC’s overall strategic plan, which senior management noted was to invest and innovate in order to anticipate, adapt and evolve with the consumer’s changing shopping habits.

They also believe it has enhanced the company’s competitive position as the Endy platform has provided SCC with improved e-commerce infrastructure and digital capabilities. The platform also expanded the retailer’s customer base and added a suite of Canadian-made products to its merchandise assortment.

Management also stressed Endy continues to operate separately from SCC’s brick-and-mortar banners – Sleep Country and Dormez-vous.

“We are incredibly excited about what the future holds for our partnership,” SCC chief business development officer Stewart Schaefer said. “We have barely scratched the surface on all that we plan to unleash between Endy and Sleep Country and have truly enjoyed working with their brilliant team.

“Each of our brands brings a best-in-class model of service to our combined customers,” he continued, adding, “Our brands complement one another in offering a superior experience to a broader customer segmentation. Looking forward, our exceptional 2020 results serve as powerful momentum as we continue to build our sleep ecosystem and expand our leadership position in Canadian retail.”

In 2020, SCC reported total revenues of $757.7 million, up 6.4% from the $712.4 million rung-up for 2019. E-commerce accounted for 21.4% of sales for the year, approximately $162.1 million. However, how much of that was generated by Endy wasn’t disclosed.

Over the past couple of years, Endy has added other items to its offerings including a duvet, weighted blanket and bed frame, to complement its self-named mattress.

Alexandra Voyevodina-Wang was named president and general manager of e-commerce mattress specialist Endy last November. In 2020, the Endy mattress was named Product of the Year in the mattress-in-a-box category in a consumer survey conducted by Kantar, the market research firm and for the second consecutive year was recognized as one of Canada’s Great Places to Work.

It was recently named the Most Trusted Mattress-in-a-Box Brand for 2021 by BrandSpark.

The Endy Donation Project has also gifted more than 10,000 mattresses to various Canadian charities to date.

In Spring 2020, Endy launched its Healthcare Heroes initiative, transforming on-call rooms at several Canadian hospitals hard-hit by COVID-19 with new mattresses and bedding. These donations help ensure doctors and nurses can rest comfortably between patients and on multi-day shifts. Endy has expanded this initiative in 2021, with 16 Canadian hospitals supported to-date.

“The Endy team is best-in-class in Canada, and we applaud their record-breaking growth and commitment to innovation in e-commerce,” said SCC chief executive officer David Friesema. “They have performed exceptionally well as part of the Sleep Country family and continue to set themselves apart as a leader in the digital space.”

This past November, Endy named Alexandra Voyevodina-Wang as its new president and general manager. Before her promotion, she as Endy’s first-ever chief financial officer having joined the team in 2016 as a key member of its early-stage growth team.

In her new role, Voyevodina-Wang oversees Endy’s growth strategy and day-to-day operations and looks forward to solidifying its reputation as a Canadian brand with a customer-first focus. Rajen Ruparell remains active as founder and advisor to the company.