The Sleep People makes more than 1,400 mattresses a day in Yorkshire and generates annual revenue topping £20 million. But over the years, rising costs and tighter competition have squeezed margins, drivingthe company to look for new customers online.

However, selling across multiple marketplaces created new operational challenges. Without a central system in place, the family-run company processed orders and tracked stock across each platform separately.

“Handling everything manually wasn’t sustainable,” said Mike Worden, managing director of The Sleep People. “We needed something simple and reliable.”

Founded in 2014, the company sells under brands including The Foam People, Extreme Comfort and Starlight Beds. As it looked to scale, it needed a marketplace that could bring new sales and a system to keep operations running smoothly.

Worden turned to Linnworks and Temu.

Bringing orders into one place

Linnworks pulls incoming orders from multiple marketplaces into a single dashboard. This gave The Sleep People the operational foundation needed for steady growth, Worden said.

Before adopting the system, the company had no easy way to manage its product codes, stock levels and order details across channels. Every new platform meant more manual work to keep them aligned.

Linnworks pulls all of that into a single dashboard. It keeps product information synced across platforms, consolidates orders into one view and removes manual updates. Adding a new marketplace no longer means rebuilding listings from scratch.

The onboarding process with Skuvault was well-structured and efficient. A dedicated implementation specialist guided Appalachian Offroad through a phased rollout, allowing them to go live in just 4-6 weeks with minimal disruption. The team found the platform remarkably easy to adopt.

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Reaching new customers on Temu

With operations under control, The Sleep People could focus on finding new customers. The company joined Temu in 2025, and sales jumped 27% within three weeks.

Temu began serving UK customers in 2023 and opened to local sellers the following year. The global marketplace has more than 13 million active users in the UK. The platform connects sellers directly with shoppers, offering a cost-effective channel into new markets.

“Reaching new customers through traditional routes was getting harder. Temu gave us access to a much broader base of shoppers” Worden said.

The platform’s data on customer preferences also helped the company refine its product range and target different regions.

Growth without pains

The surge in Temu orders allowed The Sleep People to hire more staff in Yorkshire and expand its community work, including a jobs programme for armed forces veterans and providing mattresses for households in need.

The company can now focus on production while preparing for further growth. With Temu’s reach across 90 markets, including the US and Europe, international sales are now a realistic prospect, Worden said.

“Our goal is to show that British-made products can compete internationally while continuing to support our local communities,” he said.

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