Royal Georgia, a factory producing orthopedic mattresses and pillows in Georgia, is going to develop its network of branded stores in all the regions of Georgia in 2019. The first store will be opened in the Saburtalo district of Georgia’s capital city Tbilisi, while by the end of the year Royal Georgia stores will be opened in all regions of the country.
“We are actively working on developing the network of our stores in Georgia which requires opening a new factory,” said Marketing Manager of Royal Georgia, Tea Maisuradze.
Royal Georgia was founded in 2014 with the support of the state programme ‘Produce in Georgia’. The factory is located in Tbilisi and produces different kinds of mattresses and pillows that are distributed not only in Georgia but are also exported abroad.
As of today Royal Georgia’s products are exported to Azerbaijan and the United States. Maisuradze said that the company plans to increase the area of its export countries.
“We are working on a strategy to expand the area of our exporting countries in the near future. We have our representatives in foreign markets who are working to compete with local competitors and successfully sell our mattresses with the right marketing,” Maisuradze said.
Currently, Royal Georgia holds 80 percent of the Georgian market in terms of wholesale trade.
“We now want to increase our retail sales, and having our own network of stores will give us this opportunity,” Maisuradze said.
About 40 people are employed at Royal Georgia, producing about 100 mattresses a day.
“In total we have produced 30,000 mattresses,” said Maisuradze.
Royal Georgia’s mattresses and pillows are distinguished by their high quality. The products are anti-allergic and healthy.
Q. Royal Georgia was created with the support of the state programme ‘Produce in Georgia’. Could you please tell us what kind of support the state provided and how the factory was established in Georgia?
A. People spend 1/3 of their life sleeping. A correctly selected orthopedic mattress is a guarantee of a calm, restful night’s sleep. Having this in mind we came up with the idea to create a factory producing orthopedic mattresses.
Market research has shown the low level of mattress production and below-par quality of mattresses in Georgia. That is why we decided to improve the standards and provide top quality products in Georgia.
State programme ‘Produce in Georgia’ helped our idea come to life. The Ministry of Economy gave us land in Tbilisi, in the Lilo district, at a symbolic price of GEL 1.
The project envisaged investment of millions of GEL over the two years but we invested even more in it – GEL 1,600,000.
Construction of the factory took two years in total.
In order to purchase the equipment we took out a loan worth GEL 150,000 from TBC Bank.
The state gave us the right to produce mattresses under one condition – we have to produce and sell at least 500 mattresses annually. According to today’s data, the company exceeded the limits set by the state and has produced 30,000 mattresses since 1 September, 2016.
Today people can order mattresses online and we will deliver the products for free in Tbilisi.
Q. Who are Royal Georgia’s customers and how is the number of your customers increasing year after year?
A. We have a large list of customers, among them are the Embassy of the United States in Georgia; the Georgian Rugby Union; Zaza Pachulia Basketball Academy; hotel network Mgzavrebi; hotel Mgzavrebi Gudauri; BM Plaza; Archi Tower; Hotel EcoRest Likani Palace; HomeMade plus; Litten Tree; Gudauri Ski Resort; GBG; Truso; Winery Khareba; and many other small or large companies operating in Georgia.
The number of our customers increases year-on-year. The increased demand encouraged us to open our network of stores, which we hope will further increase the sales statistics.
Q. How does Royal Georgia attract its customers? What campaigns or activities have you launched to attract more customers?
A. At the initial stage we developed a social networking strategy and have been working on all segments since. We created a website, took advertising videos of Royal Georgia and tried to achieve success without extra expenses.
Our first goal was to increase awareness and so we created a website in 2016. Facebook and Instagram pages have helped us to have constant contact with our customers and prove to them the advantages of Royal Georgia. Just a single dollar paid for our Facebook advertisement gave us the opportunity to have an audience of 500,000 potential customers.
Q. Where do you import your raw materials from to produce your mattresses and pillows?
A. We import raw materials from Turkey and China. Each product has its own quality certificate that gives us the opportunity to produce high quality and healthy products.
Each customer has the possibility to create a design for their mattress. We offer them different coloured materials with different decorations so that they can choose their favourite combination.
Q. How affordable are Royal Georgia’s mattresses and pillows for customers?
A. The price of our mattresses starts at GEL 50 and goes up to GEL 1,400. Prices are suitable for all segments.
As for pillows, their price varies from GEL 40 to GEL 100.
Q. Congratulations on winning the Golden Brand award. This is the first Golden Brand award for Royal Georgia. In your opinion, what encouraged the experts to name Royal Georgia the number one brand in its segment in Georgia?
A. Customers’ feedback and their assessments have contributed to this award. We are very grateful to our customers and we promise to develop further and prove to everyone that such a Georgian product is truly worthy.
