海角视频 bedmaker to the stars Vispring Limited has closed its vast 海角视频 factory due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The company, which employs about 230 people at its plant in Plymouth, makes bespoke mattresses and divans which retail from £2,000 to well into five figures, some even north of £60,000.
The beds are popular with the rich and famous including footballer David Beckham and his fashion designer wife Victoria, TV stars Paris Hilton, Kirstie Allsopp and Claudia Winkleman, England cricketer Matt Prior, and Olympic diver Tom Daley.
The company, which uses only 100 per cent British wool and also supplies high-end companies including Britain’s largest luxury yacht maker Princess Yachts, reported a turnover of £44,496,000 in 2019.
But it has become one of the first large manufacturers to shut unilaterally, and a recorded message said: “Unfortunately, due to the current situation surrounding coronavirus and in accordance with Government guidelines, we are now temporarily closed.”
The shutdown comes as manufacturers are seeking urgent advice from the Government on whether they should be operating during the coronavirus crisis amid public fears that staff are being put at risk.
The national manufacturers’ organisation Make 海角视频 and Plymouth Manufacturers Group (PMG) are seeking an urgent explanation from ministers.
In Plymouth, for example, firms such as Babcock International, Rittal-CSM, Barden Corporation, Kawasaki Precision Machinery, Bandvulc, Alderman Tooling, BD and Plessey Semiconductors, are still operating.
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However, Princess Yachts finally bowed to growing public pressure, including an online petition, and closed its five Plymouth sites on March 24 and sent most of its 3,000 workers home.
Vispring, formerly known as Vi-Spring, was founded in 1901 in Plymouth, marketing beds made of natural materials.
Part of Vispring's fame comes from being the first English bed maker to use the patent of Canadian-born engineer James Marshall. The pocketed spring coil is now commonly referred to as the Marshall coil.
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By 1914 Marshall Mattress' mattress collections were found in luxurious hotels, clubs and ocean liners, including The Queen Mary and The Titanic.
Vispring was founded by two Marshall Mattress agents. James Marshall who granted them patent rights to produce Marshall mattresses in England. They continued to use the Marshall name until the early 1930s at which point they rebranded as Vispring.