General Manager
MM Rubber Company Ltd
Revolutionizing the mattress industry with Latex mattresses
Q What motivated you to enter into Mattress Industry? Please share your untold story with us?
When “mm foam” entered into mattress manufacturing in the 1960s, cotton mattresses were used by the majority of people. Though Cotton is a natural material, cotton dust is allergic and many develop health issues due to this. We have developed latex foam rubber mattresses to offer an alternative to this, making use of “Dunlop process technology” which was already available in England. In the 70’s and 80’s other than mattresses and pillows our major business was Automobile seat cushions including Bus seats, Two-Wheeler seats, Railway berths mattresses, Theatre Cushions etc.
Q What are the different raw materials and qualities you are offering?
Ans: “mmfoam” latex foam rubber mattresses are made in different grades of hardness as per BIS Specification IS 1741/2019. According to the customer’s preference, we market it as Soft, Medium, and Hard. The latex we use for our manufacturing is GOLS (Global Organic Latex Standard) certified Natural Rubber Latex as the base polymer. It ensures social and environmental conformity. Good quality branded chemicals of Accelerators and Antioxidants give a long-lasting product.
We periodically test our products at the lab of an external agency and have determined that our products do not contain 224Nos of substances of very high concern (SVHC), which were grouped by ECHA (European Chemicals Agency) under REACH Compliance, to reassure the customer that our products do not contain these substances. Thus, our products satisfy the requirements of European regulations.
We also produce natural, non-halogenated graded flame retardant foams that adhere to BS5852.
Q How are the build technologies like Pincore, Nanocore, Innercore helping you to provide different product experiences to Customers.
Latex Foam Rubber consists of tiny interconnected cells which allow the free flow of air. We are the first manufacturer who developed ‘Pincore technology’ for manufacturing NRLF (Natural Rubber Latex Foam) in India.
Our R&D team has developed a variety of designs based on this goal to find the best one that not only meets the pricing requirement but also the quality need.
One of those innovations was the nano-core technology, in which we combined the natural rubber particle’s nanostructure with other elements to create a distinctive nano-core technology that offers a special level of sleep comfort.
The inner core technology is something we invented. A person with a healthy BMI will feel levitated when lying on it because of the design structure. Consequently, a person who sleeps on it will get the sustained air thrust in the cores which support the body contours. Since these mattresses are created with different technology, the sleeping experiences vary. That is the uniqueness of each technology.
Q What are the challenges you faced in this journey of creating a legacy in the mattress industry.
We believe in Quality, Comfort and Sustainability. We are not in the rat race and believe in the philosophy of “Slow and Steady race”. In the last 66 years, we have been concentrating on Latex Foam Rubber. Being an agricultural product, the price of latex is very volatile due to various factors but we never compromised on the quality of our mattresses and today the latex we use is GOLS certified Organic Latex. Our experience says that if the price you offer justifies the quality there is demand for the product from the Customers.
Q How are you planning for more improvement and innovations in your products by manufacturing unbeatable quality at an affordable price.
Latex mattresses are categorised in the Luxury segment in the bedding industry. We found that many aspire to a latex mattress but won’t have the budget to possess it. Hence, it was our moral responsibility to satisfy this need and our R&D re-engineered the latex foam rubber mattress and developed “Bloom” and “Spineline” and now offered through our online platform to customers at an affordable price without compromising the quality. It is a matter of fact that a superior quality cannot be obtained at a lower cost, particularly in the case of Natural Rubber Latex Foam and we do not use hazardous chemicals or synthetic lattices to make our products more economical. Therefore, our goal was to modify the original designs to bring down costs without compromising quality.
Q What is the importance of Mattress Circular Journey (MCJ) and how you are participating in the journey.
When a customer wants to purchase a new mattress, the question raised in his/her mind is how to dispose of the old mattress. As mattress manufacturers, it is our basic responsibility to offer a solution to this. MCJ plays a major role in this and being a Management Committee member of ISPF we are very much involved in its programmes.