Germany's largest bedding manufacturer Breckle Matrazen (Northeim; www.breckle.de) has announced its partnership with Blue Ocean Sleep (Sacramento, California / USA; www.blueoceansleep.com). Together the bedding producers plan to maximise their business opportunities in Europe and the United States with an eye towards expanding in the Australian and Asian markets in late 2012. The transatlantic partners have already started to develop and introduce new global sleep products focused on the foam mattress market.

As part of the cooperation, Breckle will supply the US group with the mattress core and Blue Ocean Sleep will finish the product for use in the US market. "The timing for our partnership couldn't be better," said Jim Malkiewicz, president of Blue Ocean Sleep, adding that, "Breckle Matrazen has long been a leader in foam mattress construction within Europe. Combine that with our experience and the increasing demand for foam sleep systems in the United States – it just made good business sense to confirm our partnership now." Malkiewicz assumes that the US market will in future see a shift from coil spring mattresses to foamed ones.