Pan-India growth, private investments helped us become IPO-ready after 60 years: Duroflex
As it lines up an initial public offering, Duroflex Group enters a tougher arena shaped by new-age rivals, private equity capital and shifting consumer behaviour. The listing comes as organized brands jostle for share in a still-fragmented mattress and furniture market, where scale matters.
Bengaluru: After more than six decades as a privately held, family-run business, mattress maker Duroflex believes it is ready for the public markets, top executives of the company told Mint.
The company’s evolution from a regional manufacturer to a national contender was driven by meeting specific internal benchmarks. “When we started the business, we had certain milestones in mind before we went public, including national expansion, revenue growth, and trade touchpoints," Jacob George, chairman and managing director of Duroflex Group, said in an interview.
“A lot of our growth happened in the last 10-12 years. In fact, we grew 20% in the last five years alone. We have met a lot of milestones, and we believe that the timing is just right," he said.
The entry of two key private equity investors, Lighthouse Funds and Norwest Venture Partners, also enabled the firm to aggressively pursue research and adopt new technologies to innovate in a crowded market, according to Sridhar Balakrishnan, chief executive officer of Duroflex Group.
Lighthouse invested $22 million in 2018, while Norwest led a $60 million funding round in October 2021.
Duroflex is gearing up for a public-market listing soon to raise as much as ₹185 crore in fresh issue and an offer for sale (OFS) of 2.2 crore shares. Promoters Jacob Joseph George, Mathew George, Mathew Chandy and Mathew Antony Joseph will offload their stakes, while investors Lighthouse India Fund III Ltd and Lighthouse India III Employee Trust will also pare their stakes, per the draft prospectus.
Legacy in sleep innovations
The Duroflex Group was founded in 1963 in Kerala as a small manufacturer specialising in rubberized coir mattresses. Built on the region’s deep link to natural rubber and coir, the business grew steadily through distributor-led expansion and a focus on durability. Over the decades, Duroflex has evolved from a regional bedding brand into a national sleep solutions company, broadening its portfolio to include foam mattresses, pillows, and sleep accessories, while remaining largely family-owned before opening up to institutional capital in recent years.
Duroflex’s planned listing follows that of rival Wakefit Innovations, which launched a ₹1,300-crore IPO in December 2025, valuing the company at around ₹6,300 crore at the offer price. The public debut of another major player in India’s sleep and home segment underscores growing investor interest in the sector and sets a reference point for valuations and market appetite.
However, competitive intensity in the segment has been on the rise, with several players, including Wakefit, ChrysCapital-backed The Sleep Company, Pepperfry, and Furlenco-owner Sheela Foam, battling for better market and consumer mindshare.
The mattress and furniture sector remains largely unorganized, with a significant share of demand still met by local manufacturers and neighbourhood retailers. Fragmented distribution and price-led competition continue to define the market, even as organized players push for consolidation through scale, standardization and wider omnichannel reach, according to Satish Meena, analyst at Datum Intelligence.
But Duroflex doesn’t seem worried about the crowded market. “We respect competition because the movement of consumers from unorganized to organized retail increases," said CEO Balakrishnan.
“The market size for mattresses today is about ₹16,000 crore. And it’s much bigger for sofas and beds. There is enough room for more players to come in," said chairman George.
Reliance on mattress sales
Duroflex’s operating revenue in FY25 was ₹1,134 crore, while profit after tax stood at ₹47 crore against ₹11 crore in the previous year.
More than half of Duroflex’s revenue in FY25 came from mattress sales, and the firm has a pipeline to add more innovation in materials, according to the executives. It recently launched Airboost, a new mattress material comprising an interconnected mesh of over 1 lakh shock-absorbing fibres, designed to reduce sleep disruptions and improve breathability. A queen-size Airboost mattress costs ₹42,000.
It is also working to expand its furniture portfolio of everyday products, such as sofas and recliners, which currently accounts for a single-digit revenue share but is growing rapidly. “In the consumer side of the businesses, mattresses will continue to grow, but we also intend to grow the other adjacencies meaningfully and fast in the next few years," Balakrishnan noted.
The last decade has also taught Duroflex the importance of e-commerce, with nearly 17% of revenues coming from e-commerce channels in FY25, per its draft papers. The firm hopes to invest more in identifying new retail touchpoints to ramp up its omnichannel presence, Balakrishnan said.
- Duroflex is seeking a public listing after 60-plus years, raising ₹185 crore in fresh capital plus an OFS.
- The company grew its top line by 20% over the last five years, reaching ₹1,134 crore in FY25 revenue.
- Profit after tax surged more than 4 times in the last fiscal year.
- The firm is aggressively moving beyond mattresses into ‘adjacencies’ such as sofas and recliners to capture a larger share of the home-solutions market.
- Investments from Lighthouse and Norwest were the primary drivers for the company’s recent technological and national expansion.
topics
