'A good mattress is the key to a satisfied guest' 

The first thing a guest usually does after entering a hotel room is to see how the bed feels. That says enough about how important a good mattress is for customer satisfaction. A well-known name in that field is Intertras from Veendam. Through project fitters, the company has been supplying customised mattresses and box-spring beds to budget, mid-range and top hotels alike for almost a quarter of a century.

In mid-2023, Intertras was acquired by Herbert Bosma and Jacco Benjamins. Even under the new owners, the company is continuing its course as an archetypal Dutch manufacturing company: "To manufacture our mattresses, we mainly work with quality raw materials from the Netherlands and Germany. What also does not change is that we supply exclusively through project furnishing companies. Apart from the hotel and hospitality sector, we also focus on the leisure sector - such as holiday parks, shipping and the cruise boat industry - as well as care institutions, hospitals and chalet construction."

Hotels' main requirements for mattresses and box-spring beds include optimal body support, good ventilation and luxurious appearance. Intertras' products meet these requirements like no other. In addition, the company is also able to produce custom-made products for smaller quantities.

Mattresses also have to meet increasingly stringent requirements, for example in terms of fire resistance. "Part of our range therefore has the IMO Med seal of approval for fire safety," say the owners. "As one of the few suppliers, we can comply with it, including with a fire-retardant mattress cover that prevents the interior from catching fire. Especially in Germany, especially in sectors such as the shipping and cruise boat industry, this is often demanded as a requirement."

As a supplier that always thinks along with customer needs, Intertras has recently added a height-adjustable bed to its range. This allows housekeeping to make the bed in a comfortable working height while standing. "Thanks to this lift bed, housekeeping can work more ergonomically and faster. This also saves costs for the hotelier."

Intertras has been producing mattresses and box spring beds for 25 years: partly by machine, but also by hand in an artisanal way. This enables the company to make mattresses with non-standard shapes and customer-specific sizes.

A look at the production process - where an experienced and enthusiastic team guarantees expert assembly - shows that the box springs are made of wood. A spring core is incorporated in the box spring by means of a bonnel spring or pocket spring. The box spring is fitted with a pressure divider made of polyether or cold foam. The box spring is then upholstered or covered on the outside.

The second and third layers of a boxspring are formed by the mattress and top mattress, which lie on top of the wooden bed base. Manufactured mattresses are made of polyether, cold and hybrid foam, memory foam or Climalatex, with or without inner springing. The various lying zones provide optimal support for specific parts of the body, such as shoulder, head, lower back, hips and legs.

The mattresses are upholstered in a high-quality, comfortable double cloth ticking (or mattress cover), or upholstered in a standard or customer-specific fabric. It is also possible to choose from a range of budget fabric and waterproof, antibacterial mattress covers.

For the above production process, Intertras has its own sewing workshop, upholstery department, cutting department, gluing department, woodworking department and assembly department. This way, the company keeps everything under its own control and the customer is always assured of a product with optimal sleeping comfort.