Lexington, Kentucky – Tempur Sealy, the bed and mattress maker, generated sales of $822m in the first quarter 2020 up 18.96% on the same period last year.
EBITDA across the business rose 49.0%, and reached $143.5m in the first quarter of 2020.
Q1 sales up at Tempur Sealy, but Q2 looks harder
Scott-Thompson: Confident going into the future
Sales in the North America business segment were up 24%, and the international business was down by 1.2% on the first quarter of 2019, said the company.
US sales grew from $544m in the first quarter of 2019 to $677m in the 2020 quarter. The numbers were helped by the amount of sales generated in company-owned stores.
International sales were down to $145.2m in the quarter. This 1.2% fall was a result of the effects of coronavirus lockdowns in a number of the company's international markets.
CEO Scott Thompson said: 'We are especially pleased with these results in light of coronavirus having a material impact on our Asian business throughout the quarter. It impacted our North American and European markets during the second half of March. While there are significant challenges ahead, our strong operating momentum heading into this crisis gives us confidence.'
Sales in the second quarter could be down by 55%, and Tempur expects to make a loss in the second quarter, said Thompson.
Tempur added that costs in the business are highly variable and naturally adjust with changes in sales. To conserve cash, it has stopped share buy-backs, and is reducing costs by up to $300m over the course of a year.
