Tempur-Pedic
Tempur-Pedic International, Inc., now part of Tempur Sealy International, is a manufacturer and distributor of mattresses and pillows made from viscoelastic foam. The company is headquartered on the Coldstream Research Campus in Lexington, Kentucky and has manufacturing plants in Duffield, Virginia and Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Tempur was originally based on NASA's research to develop a material that would cushion aircraft seats and improve survivability in the event of an accident.
The first Tempur-Pedic mattress was introduced by Fagerdala World Foams, a Swedish technical foam firm. The brand was brought to the United States in 1992 and the company Tempur-Pedic, Inc. was founded. Nine distributors of Fagerdala, including Tempur-Pedic, Inc., merged in 1999 to form Tempur World holding company, reformed in 2002 as Tempur-Pedic International Inc. The company went public in 2003. In 2012, Tempur-Pedic and Sealy Corporation announced plans to merge to form "the world's largest bedding company." Tempur-Pedic paid $228.6 million, but the two companies will operate separately.
Tempur-Pedic won a 2009 Electronic Retailing Association award for direct marketing.
In 2010, Tempur-Pedic announced its alliance with Ronald McDonald House Charities. Tempur-Pedic began outfitting four U.S. Ronald McDonald Houses with beds in 2009.
