A person spends a third of his life in sleep, from 7 to 10 hours daily. Let this order of numbers not surprise you: the Japanese sleep 3 hours less than the Argentines. Each country has a characteristic sleep duration, depending on genes, age, health status. Well-being during the day, productivity is affected by convenience bed, more precisely - three components: a mattress, a blanket and a pillow. Convenient, pleasant to use products relieve accumulated stress, contribute to the accumulation of vivacity for the rest of the day. On the contrary, low-quality products do not allow the body to relax, relieve fatigue, stock up on the forces necessary for comfortable functioning. The production of pillows is a business, the demand for which is clear without a preliminary analysis of the market.

Brief business analysis:
Business setup costs:95-100 thousand dollars
Relevant for cities with a population:from 500 thousand people
Situation in the industry:high competition
The complexity of organizing a business: 3/5
Payback: 6 - 7 months

Business Relevance

There are 7.7 billion people on the planet. Two categories of residents do not use a pillow - the poorest strata and people who prefer to sleep without a pillow for ideological reasons. There are 6% of them in the world, therefore, the need of the world market for pillows is 7.2 billion units. Despite the opinion of doctors who recommend changing the pillow every 6 months, the real life of this element of bed comfort is 3-3.5 years. It is easy to calculate that at least 2.0 billion pillows are thrown away and purchased annually. The figures do not claim to be final accuracy, the goal is to understand the capacity, market prospects.

There are many types of pillow fillers, in each country traditional natural or synthetic materials are used:

Marketers work off the bread, so there are products with additives in the fillers of herbs or aromatic components. Beneficial features such additives do not change in any way, but increase the price, the aesthetic appeal of the product.

For the buyer, in addition to the filler, the cover is important - the outer shell of the product. Without taking into account exotic materials, which include percale, batiste, teak, microfiber and cotton covers have become widespread.

Finally, the last characteristic of the pillow is the physical size and shape of the pillow. Traditionally, four sizes are produced: 50x50, 60x60, 50x70, 70x70 cm. Non-standard products are produced, for example, 68x68 or 45x45, but at the beginning of the activity you should not pay attention to them. Feature: square, rectangular products with dimensions of 60x60, 50x70 cm are popular, small and large products are purchased respectively for children and the elderly. Pillow height - from 6 to 16 cm with a predominance in the structure of sales of products with a height of 10-14 cm. Such features are taken into account when planning production.

There are also products of non-standard models on the market - in the form of rollers, with recesses for the shape of the head. Orthopedic pillows are a separate segment with characteristic consumer qualities.

From a technological point of view, the business is simple: the organization requires a small start-up capital, simple equipment, often controlled by one person. The search for raw materials, sheathing materials is also not difficult. The pillow business is comfortable for individual entrepreneurs, large companies with a large amount of working capital. The result of the case depends more on entrepreneurial skills, product quality, and ability to sell.

Business organization

You should start with a superficial analysis of the market in the region. The Internet will cope with this task without the involvement of third-party resources. The request will give information about regional markets, manufacturers, composition of fillers, prices. In the same way, the content of segments with competitors is analyzed, the distinctive properties of the presented goods are determined.

It is necessary to understand which filler is in demand by consumers. The production of pillows from bamboo is hardly a good idea, because the buyer has associations with something solid, wooden. These are not the properties that a soft product is endowed with in the understanding of the consumer for comfort. Hollofiber and analogues - an option to start. The material is inexpensive, popular, sold everywhere.

The same approach to the choice of cover material: microfiber, despite the higher cost, has a number of advantages over cotton fabric. In addition, a pillow with synthetic filling in a natural cover is a bad idea. Microfiber is also widely represented on the market, finding a supplier will not take much time.

Depending on the volume of working capital, production starts with the most common standard sizes, 60x60 and 50x70, and completely covers possible niches. Pillowcases have the same physical dimensions, so you shouldn’t come up with proportions on your own - the consumer simply doesn’t need such a product.

Attention should be paid to the parameters with which the products will be implemented. These include distribution channels for finished products, the distinctive properties of the product. For small-scale production, an online store on the company's website is sufficient. For medium and large volumes, partnerships with furniture, construction chain stores are required.

Under the distinctive properties of the pillow are understood as qualities aimed at identifying the product. The buyer distinguishes the goods by the presence of the original name, brand, by external properties or by a unique quality that analogues do not have. Endowing a product with such a quality is the prerogative of marketers. Brand logo on each product, original packaging, distinctive names for each type of product - the fantasy is limitless here.

Workshop room

The planned volume of production is a criterion on which the stages depend, from the selection of areas to the distribution channels of goods. For a medium scale business manufacturing facility with an area of ​​25-30 square meters, storage areas twice the production area. The reason is the volume of finished products. If resources allow, there is a need to organize the storage of raw materials, the warehouse area will be 65% of the size of the storage of goods ready for delivery.

Raw materials and finished products have an increased fire hazard, so the areas are equipped with automatic fire alarm, fire fighting. There are no other strict criteria for equipping production areas. The fillers are highly hygroscopic: it is important that the moisture level is controlled.

The increased moisture content leads to excess absorption of water contained in the air, the subsequent deterioration of the quality of raw materials and products. Of course, sanitary facilities are necessary for production.

Raw material supply channels

In the production of pillows, two main types of raw materials are used - holofiber, microfiber. The filler is supplied in plastic bags weighing 7, 10 kg, other weight packaging, rolls. Microfiber is purchased in rolls with a width of 150-220 cm. The pattern and texture of the fabric are selected immediately before purchasing the material. Incoming raw materials are tested for quality with the signing of the act of acceptance and transfer of goods.

The choice of space for business is not geographically bound: business is organized in a locality with a population of 150 thousand people, focusing only on the market of such a city. The search for suppliers does not take much effort and time: there are enough suppliers of raw materials in the domestic market to meet the demand of even large businesses. At economic feasibility of interest are the markets of neighboring states - the countries of Central Asia, China.

Production technology

The pillow manufacturing business is undemanding in terms of experience, education, and therefore is available to almost everyone. Maintenance of equipment, from the stage of loading raw materials to sending finished products to the warehouse, is under the power of one person. Perhaps for this reason, many entrepreneurs, large companies are engaged in the manufacture of pillows and blankets. From a technological point of view, the production process is as follows:

1. Raw materials are delivered to the manufacturer's warehouse - microfiber, raw holofiber.
2. Further, the process is divided into two stages: the fabric is cut into the necessary size covers, quilted along the contour, and the microfiber passes through combing, molding, blowing.
3. Holofiber balls are blown into the cover, quilted, as a result of which the product acquires a presentation.
4. The pillow is placed in a pre-prepared pocket - more often it is plastic vacuum packaging.
5. The sealed packages are marked, stored or transported directly to the recipient, bypassing the storage stage.

Necessary equipment

When choosing equipment, it is taken into account that most of the used lines offered on the domestic market are outdated physically and morally. For this reason, it is better to pay attention to equipment offered in nearby countries or imported by intermediary companies.

Complex lines with a capacity of 100-120 kg of finished products per hour or about 17,000 units per month are popular. The cost of the equipment line with the minimum required configuration is $40,000. There is a lot of new and used equipment on the market at prices ranging from a few thousand dollars to several hundred thousand. A typical set of equipment for the manufacture of pillows from holofiber balls includes the following components:

• bale opener- installation designed for opening bales with raw materials, subsequent alignment of the fiber.
• Carding machine carries out combing of fibers - alignment, giving volume, elimination of impurities.
• ball forming machine forms balls from homogeneous raw materials.
• Fan blows the finished synthetic balls, thus eliminating the fibers that are not included in the structure of the balls. Such fibers are sent for re-spinning.
• IN storage bin balls are ready for use.
• Vacuum Double Chamber Pump collects material from the bunker for the production of a unit of production, fills the bag with balls.
• quilting machine processes the contours of the fabric in the manufacture of the cover, quilts the open contour after stuffing.
• cutting complex cuts the fabric material according to the specified dimensions, manufactures the frame of the cover for subsequent stuffing with filler.
• Vacuum packing machine places finished products in vacuum polyethylene or polypropylene packaging.

Business registration

IN manufacturing process no harmful or dangerous substances are used, the finished product does not contain impurities required for production licensing. The only property of the materials used in the manufacture of the pillow is fire hazard. Inspection of areas, obtaining permission from the fire control authorities are necessary. The preparatory stage of production is extremely simple and includes the following steps:

• legal registration - the creation of a physical or legal entity with the chosen form of taxation.
• Development specifications finished products. The current GOST R 55857-2013 “Quilted blankets and bedspreads. Pillows.
• Rent of premises equipped with the necessary communications. Additional equipment according to existing standards, requirements of supervisory authorities.
• Preparation internal rules safety, which is familiarized with the worker with access to the equipment.
• Obtaining a certificate of conformity. The production of pillows is not subject to mandatory certification, but the Voluntary Certificate of Conformity will help in distribution by increasing the added value of the product, such a certificate is cheap.

Marketing and distribution channels

The ability to sell a competitive product is probably the most difficult, but also the most interesting stage of a business. In a village or a large city, pillows are sold within a kilometer radius. Therefore, it is necessary to solve the problem: how to interest the buyer, with the help of what properties to distinguish the product from the list of similar ones.

Without knowledge of the market, understanding of the needs of consumers, and an established business reputation, trying your hand at segments other than consumer goods is a hopeless undertaking in advance. Therefore, the manufacturer will have to start selling in a low-margin market, while producing a high-quality recognizable product.

For starters, an excellent tool that increases awareness, introduces the properties of goods, will be the information website of the company with the obligatory presence of an online sales module. With one-time purchases, the path to wholesale buyers or chain stores begins. The site provides a detailed description of each type of pillows, highlights the properties that are attractive to the buyer. A troublesome task, but capable of quickly forming the image of the manufacturer, the memorability of the trademark. Related methods of advertising on the Internet are social networks, banner advertising platforms.

The second step is access to regional construction, furniture stores, markets on the terms of goods placement until the moment of sale. Sales volumes will correct production shortcomings, and will allow for a better production plan. Having enlisted the recommendations of retail chains, the exit and conclusion of long-term contracts with chain stores, wholesale buyers is carried out.

By this time, it is already known which products are more interesting to the consumer, their size, shape. A separate possible source of sales of products is the manufacture of custom-made pillows for the needs of the army, preschool institutions, treatment centers.

And only after the local market is occupied, is expansion to other regions, expansion of the presence of the brand in other price segments. To conquer new niches should be due to the design of the product shell, packaging. By default, it is assumed that high-quality raw materials are used in the manufacture of the pillow filler and cover. The form of packaging is able to transfer products to the high price segment, multiply brand awareness. Packaging options are varied:

• suitcases of various shapes, sizes;
• cardboard boxes with instructions describing the quality of the product;
• plastic tubes in which tools are subsequently stored in the garage;
• handbags made of durable materials used in everyday life.

The development of packaging options is an uncultivated field for marketers, which has neither mental nor physical boundaries.

Business costs and payback

For the production of one pillow measuring 60x60 cm, 700 grams of filler and 100 grams of fabric for sewing the cover are required. With average prices for holofiber and microfiber, respectively, at $2 and $9 per kilogram, the unit cost is close to $2.3. The minimum retail price of a holofiber pillow is $4, the wholesale price per unit is $3.2. Production with a capacity of 100 units per hour or 16,800 units per month with a one-shift schedule will bring a balance sheet profit: 16,800*(3.2-2.3) = $15,120.

The profitability of production in this case before taxes will be: 15.120/(16.800*2.3) = 39.13%. With a two- or three-shift operation, profitability will increase proportionately. For objectivity, two factors are noted:

1. Tailoring of covers is associated with waste, constituting 6-8% of the cost of purchased microfiber. Waste is disposed of, thus returning 30-40% of the money spent.
2. Packaging of finished products is another item of production costs. The plastic film will increase the unit cost by $0.1. When calculating profitability, this point was deliberately omitted due to the fact that such packaging is not able to distinguish the product from a number of competitors. It is necessary to search, introduce new types: the buyer meets the goods by packaging.

When planning activities, the manufacturer will face operating costs, the lion's share of which will be the purchase of raw materials and, one-time, equipment. When calculating the payback of a business, it is necessary to take into account the cost items:

• purchase of equipment: $40,000;
• purchase of raw materials Supplies, monthly supply: $38.640;
• utility bills: $1,000;
• wages: $2,000;
• permits: $3,000;
• insurance fund, working capital: $13,000.

The required start-up capital will thus be just under $100,000. With a book profit of $15,120 excluding taxes, the business will pay off within 7 months. The chosen form of taxation will adjust this value.

Weighing the pros and cons, the conclusion suggests itself: the production of pillows is a great idea that does not depend on the income of the population or financial crises. Sleep, like the consumption of food, refers to the physiological needs of the body. A person is forced to spend a third of his life in interaction with a product that is pleasant to use, easy to manufacture. Purchasing a pillow is the same required action like purchasing bread or milk.