1DOWNPASS STARS

B a d e n i a B e ttco m fo r t :W i t h u s yo u a re i n t h e r i ght p o s i t i o n !

More than 70 years ago Badenia Bettcomfort started with the production of quilts and pillows in Friesenheim
in the Black Forest. Today, the product range has grown considerably and extends from products such as
high-quality bedding with fillings made of synthetic fibers, natural hair, feathers and down, to mattresses andfurniture such as upholstered and box-spring beds. The brand portfolio is also impressive. Badenia Bettcomfort is the manufacturer of well-known and popular brands such as irisette, Brinkhaus and BedCare, and is
one of Europe's leading manufacturers in the industry. As part of the EuroComfort Group, Badenia Bettcomfort has access to a wide network of production facilities.
With the acquisition of Brinkhaus in 2011, the EuroComfort Group expanded its competencies for the firsttime in the area of down and feather processing. In doing so, it secured an enormous wealth of experienceand expert knowledge that has grown over decades. Today, the Brinkhaus brand stands for top quality inover 40 countries around the world and manufactures bedding for the premium segment in state-of-the-art
manufacturing processes.

Downpass talked to Timo Sinz, Managing Director of Badenia Bettcomfort GmbH & Co. KG
The motto of the coporate group your company belongs to is "Smart solutions for your comfort." Whichsmart solutions and innovations in bedding for sleep comfort are you particularly proud of?
Badenia Bettcomfort is a member of the EuroComfort Group and is uniquely able to complement its own expertise with the expertise of other parts of the company for new product developments. The latest example
of such intelligent and innovative product development is the Brinkhaus DORO pillow. The DORO pillow is aPhotos: © Badenia Bettcomfort–1–DOWNPASS STARS: BADENIA BETTCOMFORTthree-chamber pillow with exceptional elasticity that provides optimum support for the head and neck area.
The outer chambers of the three-chamber pillow are filled with high-quality down and feathers in the usualway. The secret of the pillow is in the supporting middle chamber. For this purpose, the group's existing andpatented filling material Rhombo-fe has been reinterpreted.

Rhombo-fe was originally developed by Lück as a filling material for seat cushions in upholstered furnitureand has proven to be a very comfortable and particularly durable filling material in high-quality upholsteredsets. It consists of a mixture of feathers and rhombically cut foam rods. For the Brinkhaus Doro pillow series,
the Rhombo-fe brand filling was newly adapted to the special requirementsof a three-chamber pillow. The result is the unique DORO three-chamber pillow series, with unusual sleeping comfort, special durability and in four comfort variants as well as two height versions.
Thanks to the know-how transfer across the group, we have already succeeded in developing a number of innovative products, some of which haveeven led to new patents and whose quality has also convinced independent
consumer test institutions. But the slogan "Smart solutions for your comfort"
is not just about products, because clever logistics and packaging solutions
have also been developed, as has a box-spring bed configurator to promotesales by specialized retailers.

Timo Sinz,
Managing Director,
Badenia Bettcomfort

Badenia offers its retail customers large-scale shop-in-shop systems where the various brands of the EuroComfort Group, to which the company has belonged since 2004, are presented. Sleeping culture from box
spring beds to mattresses to cozy down pillows - what do your retail partners particularly appreciate about
this form of presentation?
When drawing up the contracts for our shop-in-shop systems, it was important to us from the outset to finda very convenient and fair solution for retailers. Retailers do not have to make any financial advance payments to us. Instead, the store system is financed by predefined, moderate sales targets that are agreed upon when the contract is signed. Retailers only have to share the costs if the agreed sales targets are not met.
In this case, a compensation payment is due for the year in question. Our store systems are therefore also aparticularly attractive option for young entrepreneurs in the sector and for new openings. Our customers also appreciate the modular design of the store systems, which can be adapted very flexibly to spatial condi-Photos: © Badenia Bettcomfort–2–

DOWNPASS STARS: BADENIA BETTCOMFORT

tions and also allow subsequent extensions.
The high-quality Brinkhaus brand portfolio can be presented particularly well and convincingly in the appealing store systems. Our shop partners are also regularly visited and personally supported by our field service
throughout Germany. Our most renowned shop-in-shop projects, of which we are particularly proud, are forexample the Brinkhaus Shop at KADEWE Berlin and the Brinkhaus Shop at Harrods in London.
You decided to buck the trend of importing washed down, not so long ago you built a full-fledged raw
feather washing line with sorting facility in Küstrin, Poland. What prompted you to make this investment,
what challenges did you have to overcome, and how does this affect the quality of Badenia Bettcomfort's
bedding?
Only a couple of years after the acquisition of Brinkhaus, we were already reaching capacity limits and a production expansion was inevitable. In 2016, the foundation stone was laid for the new Brinkhaus production
facility, which is only about 200 m away from the old location. This was particularly important to us in order
to be able to retain the long-standing and expert staff. The result is a state-of-the-art production facility withvery low primary energy requirements and exemplary wastewater management.

The non plus ultra for the production of the highest quality down and feather products is to achieve andmaintain a consistently high quality standard. We do not leave quality to chance. Only if we purchase down
and feather raw materials from trustworthy and certified sources, wash and sort them in our own facilities
and carry out permanent quality checks on incoming and outgoing goods in our own laboratory, we can meetthis quality standard without compromise. We want to know exactly where down and feather raw materials
come from and therefore purchase our goods from Downpass and RDS certified companies directly on site inPoland. Our production is fully integrated, from the ready-made shell, washing and sorting to the filling of
the high-quality down duvets and pillows, everything comes from one source. We are one of the few
companies that still have a fully integrated production chain for feather and down products and cantherefore ensure traceability.

Photos: © Badenia Bettcomfort–3–DOWNPASS STARS: BADENIA BETTCOMFORTHow important are independent certifications for your success, and why do you rely on the DOWNPASSlabel as a sign of animal welfare & quality?
Buying down and feather products is purely a matter of trust, because ultimately no consumer can look inside down duvets and pillows. It has always been a special concern of ours to actually offer the consumer thepromised qualities. Traceability and certification are so important to us because they create additional trust
and ultimately confirm and document our high-quality standards to the consumer, such as the DOWNPASS.
Our raw duck and feather products come exclusively from certified slaughterhouses in the poultry industry
that are known to us and that respect animal welfare. We rigorously reject live plucking and the productionof foie gras geese and do not process down and feathers of this origin.

Photos: © Badenia Bettcomfort–4–