Leggett & Platt, Incorporated (Leggett & Platt), a pioneer of the steel coil bedspring, operates as an international diversified manufacturer that conceives, designs, and produces a wide range of engineered components and products found in many homes and automobiles.
The company’s operations are organized into 15 business units, which are divided into seven groups under its three segments: Bedding Products; Specialized Products; and Furniture, Flooring & Textile Products.
The company supports...
Leggett & Platt, Incorporated (Leggett & Platt), a pioneer of the steel coil bedspring, operates as an international diversified manufacturer that conceives, designs, and produces a wide range of engineered components and products found in many homes and automobiles.
The company’s operations are organized into 15 business units, which are divided into seven groups under its three segments: Bedding Products; Specialized Products; and Furniture, Flooring & Textile Products.
The company supports its customers' product needs from raw materials to components to finished mattresses and foundations, and provides distribution and fulfillment capabilities.
The company operates a steel rod mill in the United States with an annual capacity of approximately 500,000 tons. Approximately half of the rod mill's output is used internally by the company’s wire mills to supply virtually all of the wire consumed by its domestic innerspring operations and other businesses. The company also supplies steel rod and wire to trade customers that operate in a broad range of markets. The company’s innerspring operations produce coils and semi-finished mattress products with internally designed and manufactured wire-forming machines.
In Specialty Foam, the company blends polyols and chemical additives to enhance foam properties, and pours and fabricates foam for use in bedding and furniture applications. The company utilizes its specialty foam capabilities to produce mattress accessories and private label boxed mattresses, which often also incorporate its innersprings in hybrid mattress designs.
The company is a major supplier of adjustable beds, with North American manufacturing and distribution, and global sourcing capabilities. Internationally, primarily in Europe, the company produces innersprings, specialty foam, and finished mattresses. The company also produces machinery used by bedding manufacturers in the production and assembly of their finished products. The company’s range of products offers its customers a single source for many of their component and finished product needs.
Products
Bedding Group
This segment’s products are steel rod; drawn wire; innersprings (sets of steel coils, bound together, that form the core of a mattress); specialty foam chemicals and additives; specialty foam for use primarily in bedding and furniture; semi-finished mattresses (a subassembly including innersprings and foam); private label finished mattresses, often sold compressed and boxed; mattress accessories, such as pillows and toppers; static foundations; adjustable beds; and machines that the company uses to produce innersprings, industrial sewing and quilting machines, mattress-packaging and glue-drying equipment.
Customers
The company used more than 60% of its wire mill output to manufacture its own products in 2024, with the majority going to its U.S. innerspring operations. The company’s customers are various industrial users of steel rod and wire; manufacturers of finished bedding (mattresses and foundations); bedding brands and mattress retailers; e-commerce retailers; and big box retailers, department stores, and home improvement centers.
Specialized Products Segment
This segment includes Automotive Group (automotive), Aerospace Products Group (aerospace products), and Hydraulic Cylinders Group (hydraulic cylinders) business units.
The company’s Specialized Products segment designs, manufactures, and sells products, including automotive comfort and convenience systems, tubing and fabricated assemblies for the aerospace industry, and hydraulic cylinders for the material handling and heavy construction industries. In the company’s Automotive business, its technical capability and deep customer engagement allow it to compete on critical functionality, such as comfort, size, weight, and noise.
Products
Automotive Group: Automotive Group products include mechanical and pneumatic lumbar support and massage systems for automotive seating, seat suspension systems, motors and actuators, used in a wide variety of vehicle power features, and cables.
Aerospace Products Group: Aerospace Products Group products include titanium, nickel, and stainless-steel tubing, formed tube, tube assemblies, and flexible joint components, primarily used in fluid conveyance systems.
Hydraulic Cylinders Group: Hydraulic Cylinders Group products include engineered hydraulic cylinders.
Customers
This segment’s customers are automobile Tier 1 suppliers and OEMs, aerospace OEMs and suppliers, and mobile equipment OEMs, primarily serving material handling and heavy construction markets.
Furniture, Flooring & Textile Products Segment
This segment includes Home Furniture Group (home furniture), Work Furniture Group (work furniture), and Flooring & Textile Products Group (flooring products, fabric converting, and geo components) business units.
In the company’s Furniture, Flooring & Textile Products segment, the company designs, manufactures, and distributes a wide range of components and finished products for residential and commercial markets, and select structural fabric and geo component markets. The company supplies components used by home and work furniture manufacturers to provide comfort, motion, and style in their finished products, and manufactures select lines of private-label finished furniture. The company produces carpet cushion and hard surface flooring underlayment for residential and commercial use. The company converts fabrics into components used by bedding and furniture manufacturers, and in other applications, such as filtration, hospitality, automotive, and packaging. The company also converts and distributes geo components for erosion control, subgrade stabilization, and storm water management.
Products
Home Furniture Group: Home Furniture Group products are steel mechanisms and motion hardware (enabling furniture to recline, tilt, swivel, rock, and elevate) for reclining chairs, sofas, sleeper sofas, and lift chairs, and springs and seat suspensions for chairs, sofas, and loveseats.
Work Furniture Group: Work Furniture Group products are components and private-label finished goods for collaborative soft seating, and bases, columns, back rests, casters, and frames for office chairs, and control devices that allow chairs to tilt, swivel, and elevate.
Flooring & Textile Products Group: Flooring & Textile Products Group products are carpet cushion and hard surface flooring underlayment (made from bonded scrap foam, fiber, rubber, and prime foam), structural fabrics for mattresses, residential furniture, and industrial uses, and geo components (synthetic fabrics and various other products used in ground stabilization, drainage protection, erosion, and weed control).
Customers
This segment’s customers are manufacturers of upholstered and office furniture, flooring retailers and distributors, including big box retailers and home improvement centers, contractors, landscapers, road construction companies, retailers, and government agencies using or selling geo components, mattress and furniture producers, and manufacturers of draperies, specialty packaging, filtration, and automotive upholstery.
Strategic Initiatives
The company is evaluating the market attractiveness and competitive position of all its businesses, and assessing opportunities for profitable, long-term growth. The company is also determining, which businesses are the best long-term fit for the company, and as part of this review, the company is exploring the potential sale of its Aerospace business.
Foreign Operations
The percentages of the company’s trade sales related to products manufactured outside the United States were 40% in 2024. In comparison to the company’s other two segments, its Specialized Products segment has a larger percentage of trade sales manufactured outside the United States, which ranged between 84% and 86% over the last three years.
The company’s international operations are principally located in Europe, China, Canada, and Mexico. The company’s products in these foreign locations primarily consist of:
Europe: Innersprings, specialty foam, and finished mattresses; lumbar and seat suspension systems for automotive seating and actuators for automotive applications; seamless and welded tubing and fabricated assemblies for aerospace applications; select lines of private-label finished furniture; hydraulic cylinders for material handling and heavy construction equipment; and machinery and equipment designed to manufacture innersprings for mattresses.
China: Lumbar and seat suspension systems for automotive seating; cables, motors, and actuators for automotive applications; recliner mechanisms and bases for upholstered furniture; work furniture components, including chair bases and casters; innersprings for mattresses; and hydraulic cylinders for heavy construction equipment.
Canada: Lumbar and seat suspension systems for automotive seating; fabricated wire for the furniture and automotive industries; work furniture chair controls and bases; and geo components.
Mexico: Lumbar and seat suspension systems for automotive seating; motors and actuators for automotive applications; adjustable beds; and select lines of private-label finished furniture.
Geographic Areas of Operation
As of December 31, 2024, the company had 119 manufacturing facilities in 18 countries; 71 located in the United States, and 48 located in foreign countries. The company also had various sales, warehouse, and administrative facilities.
Distribution of Products
The company sells and distributes its products primarily through its own personnel. However, many of its businesses have relationships and agreements with outside sales representatives and distributors.
Customer Concentration
The company serves thousands of customers worldwide, sustaining many long-term business relationships. The company’s largest customer represented less than 8% of its 2024 consolidated revenue. The company’s top 10 customers accounted for approximately 32% of these consolidated revenues.
Patents and Trademarks
As of December 31, 2024, the company had 1,281 patents issued, 503 patents in process, 1,007 trademarks registered, and 57 trademarks in process.
Some of the most significant trademarks used in the company’s businesses include:
ComfortCore, Quantum, Eco-Base, CombiCore, Nanocoil, Softech, Active Support Technology, Mira-Coil, and VertiCoil (mattress innersprings);
Energex, Coolflow, ThermaGel, EcoFlow, and Gorilla Foam (specialty foam products);
Semi-Flex (box spring components and foundations);
Spuhl (mattress innerspring manufacturing machines);
Wall Hugger (recliner chair mechanisms);
No-Sag (wire forms used in seating);
LPSense (capacitive sensing);
Hanes (fabric materials);
Schukra (automotive seating products); and
Gribetz and Porter (quilting and sewing machines).
Product Development
One of the company’s strongest performing product categories across the company is ComfortCore, its fabric-encased innerspring coils used in hybrid mattresses. ComfortCore represented 70% of its U.S. innerspring units in 2024. Quantum Edge units are narrow-diameter, fabric-encased coils that form a perimeter around an innerspring set, replacing a rigid foam perimeter in a finished mattress. In 2024, over 40% of its ComfortCore innersprings in the United States had the Quantum Edge feature. In 2022, the company launched two new products called the Quantum Edge Enhanced Profile with Eco-Base and Caliber Edge Enhanced Profile with Eco-Base. The company’s Eco-Base products feature a robust polyester fabric attached to the bottom of a ComfortCore unit, eliminating non-value-added base foam in a finished mattress and saving customers time and labor. To maintain mattress profile, innerspring coil height is increased by one inch.
The company’s Specialty Foam business formulates many of the chemicals and additives used in the production of specialty foams for the bedding and furniture industries. These branded, specialty polyols and additives enhance foam performance by reducing heat retention and improving mobility, support, and durability. The company’s innovations enable it to produce high-quality, differentiated compressed mattresses.
The company is leveraging its innerspring and specialty foam technologies to develop unique products that meet end-consumer needs while streamlining mattress manufacturing for its customers by reducing labor constraints and simplifying supply chain and inventory requirements. In 2023, the company launched CombiCore, a semi-finished mattress featuring fabric-encased perimeter edge innerspring and specialty foam columns that minimize motion disturbance from a sleeping partner and improve airflow. In 2024, the company launched its pre-foam encased product, which features foam rails automatically attached to an Eco-Base innerspring set during the innerspring production process.
The company’s Automotive business designs and engineers lightweight components that help reduce overall vehicle weight and improve fuel efficiency (and thus reduce noise and greenhouse gas emissions), while maintaining performance, safety, and functionality. These products help auto manufacturers meet emission standards and their environmental goals for both internal combustion engines and electric vehicles.
Seasonality
The company generally experiences some seasonality in its consolidated sales, earnings, and operating cash flows. Both sales and earnings are typically higher in the second and third quarters (year ended December 31, 2024), primarily driven by its residential bedding and furniture businesses, as well as its geo components business. Also, historically, the company’s operating cash flows have been stronger in the fourth quarter, primarily related to the timing of cash collections from customers and payments to vendors, and lower in the first quarter, when annual cash incentive payments are paid and as inventories typically increase. However, supply chain disruptions, inflation, and other macroeconomic factors have impacted seasonality in prior years.
History
Leggett & Platt, Incorporated was founded in 1883. The company was incorporated in 1901.