Casper CEO is creating a ‘culture of frugality’ to make the brand profitable

Casper is pulling back on its planned store expansion in North America and will hold steady with its current 73 showrooms.

Boston – Speaking at a retail conference here recently, Casper CEO Emilie Arel said the direct-to-consumer mattress and sleep accessories brand is focused on becoming profitable.

According to a story by Retail Dive, Arel told the group at eTail’s annual conference in Boston that the company is no longer “in the business of not making money anymore.”

During the event, Arel highlighted a number of cost-cutting initiatives, including the company’s decision to pull back on its planned store opening. She said the company is focused on controlling costs, cutting its marketing spend and zeroing in on its core product – mattresses – and slowing its store expansion plan. Last year, the company had said it would have 200 company-owned stores in North America.

Arel told the conference that the 73 stores currently in operation would be enough for at least a year as the company embarks on a “culture of frugality.”

The company, which filed its initial public offering in 2020, struggled to turn a profit. In 2021, Arel was named CEO of the company, and with its third quarter earnings report, Casper announced it would be taken private by Durational Capital Management.

The deal was sparked by challenges, including supply chain woes that arose during the pandemic, a miscalculation on its marketing budget and ongoing struggles to become profitable.

I’m Sheila Long O’Mara, executive editor at Furniture Today. Throughout my 25-year career in the home furnishings industry, I have been an editor with a number of industry publications and spent a brief stint with a public relations agency where I worked with some of the industry’s leading bedding brands. I rejoined Furniture Today in December 2020 with a focus on bedding and sleep products. It’s a homecoming for me, as I was a writer and editor with Furniture Today from 1994 until 2002. I’m happy to be back and look forward to telling the important stories impacting bedding retailers and manufacturers.