Advertisement

Bedmaker cashes in on Spain savings fears

George Mills
George Mills - [email protected]
Bedmaker cashes in on Spain savings fears
The firm DESS believes the best place to keep your money safe is inside your mattress. Photo: YouTube

An ingenious bed manufacturer in the Spanish city of Salamanca has developed a crisis-proof mattress that comes within an inbuilt safe.

Advertisement

The high-quality mattress was developed by a company called Descanso Santos Sueños (DESS), or "Dream Heavenly Dreams".

It contains an inbuilt safe where people can stash their money and valuables out of the reach of eurozone financiers.

With a price tag of €875 for a double bed, the mattress was released only three weeks ago — or just in time for the Cyprus bailout.

After Europe's finance ministers decided Cypriots with more than €100,000 in the bank would have to help pay for bank rescues on the island, people across the eurozone have become jittery about their own savings.

But with the DESS mattress people can sleep easier at night.

In a video on the company website, founder Francisco “Paco” Santos says: "They say history is repeating itself. 

"Our grandparents understood that the safest way of saving money was under the mattress.

"Now we are proposing the same thing, because we have seen people's lack of certainty about the current situation."

Santos worked in the mattress industry for some 16 years before being fired in 2009.

Instead of throwing in the towel, however, he developed the idea of the mattress known as the "caja de ahorros", or savings union.

"There's no denying that our idea is slightly crazy, but we believe that with this mattress we can help people sleep well, not just because of its high quality, but because they will have peace of mind," said Santos in the video about the company.

Santos told Spain's El Economista newspaper his firm had received 80 enquiries in one week alone, and that 30 deals had been completed.

He also said an international company had expressed an interest in the Portuguese-made product.

Asked whether the business was profitable, Santos explained to El Economista that as the owner of a small business, he was more interested in covering costs.

"You can't do any more than that," he said. 

The company has also invested in a clever advertising campaign that mocks traditional bank advertisements.

The ad includes a fictitious bank, the Caja de Ahorras Mi Colchon, and Santos is its president.

In the ad, the bank president invites people to become clients by buying a mattress and putting their hard-earned savings money inside.

Santos then assures viewers that this mattress is the best security because it doesn't "fail or merge, or dance to the music of the markets".

The company's slogan is "Your money stays close to you".

See how it works

More

Join the conversation in our comments section below. Share your own views and experience and if you have a question or suggestion for our journalists then email us at [email protected].
Please keep comments civil, constructive and on topic – and make sure to read our terms of use before getting involved.

Please log in to leave a comment.

See Also