Page 47 - Masala E-magazine Vol 9 Issue 4 February-March 2018

or a man whose main passion is sleep, Sleepwell
Industries Managing Director, Raj Dudhoria takes
F his leisurely interest very seriously. Over the course
of seven years, he has single-handedly led his company from
a small skeleton-staff operation to become the number one
hospitality player for mattresses and bedding in Thailand.
Marriott, Starwood, Accor, Radisson Blu, Avani and Plaza
Athenee are just some of the luxury hotel chains that are
regular buyers of his European luxury mattress brand,
DreamMaster.

He has not only made his mark locally with a key understanding First things fi rst, how did you acquire the
of what his customers require, but Raj has also devised DreamMaster brand?
an innovative roll-packed mattress which cuts the cost of I was actually working for my family business when I got
logistics, giving him an added competitive advantage. This has acquainted with DreamMaster. Called Thai Rice & Food Co. Ltd,
allowed him to compete with local mattress brands for hotels in we were involved in agricultural commodities, particularly in the
countries like India, Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos, Philippines, even trading of rice. We had several manufacturing arms under the
reaching as far as Darwin, Australia. company, one of which dealt with bedding products for export,
to be sold under the buyer’s label. About 10 years ago, while
Keeping up with cutting-edge technology is no easy feat, but attending one of the world’s biggest furniture fairs in Cologne,
Raj is not one to believe that any dream is too big to achieve. Germany, I saw beds from the DreamMaster brand which was
Already fi lled with plans for a DreamMaster furniture line, and then manufactured in Holland.
with big goals to be the leading competitor in the mattress
industry worldwide, Masala fi nds out just what keeps this I met with the then Dutch owner of DreamMaster, who was
visionary dynamo going. interested in products from a destination which offered a more
competitive price. And so, after our meeting, mattress samples
were sent to DreamMaster from Thailand. He liked the product’s
“ The will to win, the desire to costs in Europe, we entered into a joint-venture agreement
quality, as well as the pricing, and because of high production

to manufacture DreamMaster mattresses under license to be
succeed, the urge to reach my
full potential; these are my shipped to Europe. They gave us the technical expertise on
how to make the kind of high-quality products we needed to
keys that unlock my door to produce. As time went on, the European economy slowed down
with the 2008 recession crisis, and so we slowly bought into
“ own company, Sleepwell Industries Company Limited.
personal excellence. DreamMaster, fi nally purchasing the full brand under my very

47
www.masalathai.com