Silentnight is the largest UK manufacturer of beds & mattresses and is located in Barnoldswick, Lancashire, England. The company is owned by HIG Europe who acquired the company on 10 May 2011, following a period in administration. The company also manufactures Rest Assured beds & mattresses and was originally founded in 1946.

The brand is Silentnight, and the company name is Silentnight Group.

The company was founded on 11 July 1946 by Tom Clarke. It was founded as Clarke’s Mattresses Limited in Skipton with the gratuity paid to Tom after he was demobbed from the Royal Navy. The name was changed to Silentnight Limited in 1951 at the suggestion of Tom’s wife, Joan. Clarke later said that the name change was a brainwave that brought millions into the company.

The company floated on the stock market in 1973 but due to market uncertainty and a loss of confidence with the management, the Clarke family took full possession of the company again in 2003 and the company became private.

During the 1980s, and again in the 2000s and the 2010s, the company was the United Kingdom’s largest bed manufacturer.

The companies fortunes declined in private ownership and, in May 2011, the company was saved from receivership by HIG Europe, a private equity company. Much of the existing management was replaced in 2011, including the Clarke family.

HIG Europe spent £19 million acquiring the company, but in doing so, shelved some of the pension scheme rights for retired and current workers. The Pensions Regulator served notice in 2013 that they would start legal proceedings to reverse this process and force HIG to re-invest £17.2 million back into the company’s pension pot. HIG eventually agreed a £25 million settlement with the regulator in 2021.