THE LUXURY OF SLEEP
After a watershed moment, drunk atop a bridge, pillow executive finds a soft landing by listening to customers. By Apornrath Phoonphongphiphat
After a rough start, pillow entrepreneur finds a soft landing by listening to customers.
Komsan Jiwakanon’s working life did not have a good start. He bounced around several different jobs in his twenties, unsure if any were suitable for him, before finally settling for a position as supervisor for a premium-grade bedclothes producer.
Things went well with the job because it was secure and paid well. “But that led to a new problem,” says the 36-yearold managing director and founder of Deluxe Hotel Supply Co, the luxury pillow maker.
Having a well-paid job made him overconfident and he was spending lots of money without thinking. He also became an alcoholic.
Heading in a downward spiral, Mr Komsan was eventually sacked. His lavish spending meant he still needed to pay instalments on his car and house.
“I left the company with nothing but debts. I did not dare tell my wife or mother I was sacked. I drank beer alone very late at night in the middle of Sathon bridge,” he says, referring to an eightlane bridge that links Bangkok’s Thon Buri district to the busy financial district of Silom and Rama IV roads.
Drunk and unsure how he would survive, Mr Komsan tried a desperate ploy to test his luck.
“I covered my eyes with my shirt and drove my car down from Sathon bridge, heading to the financial district late at night. I bet my life, deciding if another car hit me, I would let it end like that. But if I survive, I will rededicate my life,” he says.
Mr Komsan had an uneven and difficult path up to that point, growing up in a slum the product of a divorce.
He studied hard and graduated with a bachelor’s degree in management, fulfilling his mother’s dream that a higher education would improve her son’s life.
With this degree, Mr Komsan could have applied for a job at several companies for a monthly salary of around 15,000 baht. But rather than a whitecollar job, he chose to work as a bike messenger earning around 6,000 baht a month.
“I wanted to be free, and riding on a bike delivering documents was not that bad,” says Mr Komsan.
Then one day, he found being a bike messenger was not fun anymore. He quit and started a new job in tele-credit sales, calling hundreds of people a day trying to convince them to apply for a bank’s personal loans.
He finally ended up in that supervisor position, surviving his suicidal drive before vowing to move on.
At the age of 32, his friend asked him if he wanted to try to be a street vendor, selling pillows.
Mr Komsan said “yes” without any hesitation.
He went to the pillow factory and took pillows to be sold at a makeshift booth along the road, which offered a nearly 100% margin.
“I knew immediately this was the job for me, the one I will make my career,” says Mr Komsan.
He started by seeking out more knowledge about the product and the market, finding the best pillows in the world are made of duck feathers, which are very expensive. Such pillows might not be affordable for Thai customers as purchasing power here is not very strong.
Some local producers opted for artificial duck feather pillows because they are substantially cheaper.
“I think artificial duck feathers are not the best raw material for making premium pillows,” says Mr Komsan.
His search for another raw material led him to a micro-gel made out of synthetic fibres that are similar to silk. This makes the pillow feel just as luxurious as feather pillows.
The pillows also retain their shape over time, unlike traditional pillows that become flat or limp, ensuring a comfortable night’s sleep for years to come.
He bet big on this new business, pawning his car for around 100,000 baht to start producing micro-gel pillows.
Mr Komsan introduced his products to consumers by renting a small booth at market fairs, weekend markets and community malls. He found allowing clients to try the pillows by themselves led to them making quicker decisions to buy.
“Next I made several different sizes of pillow to match the needs of different clients. This proved popular,” he says.
“I also offered an exchange policy for pillows clients found to be uncomfortable. This guarantee really improved customer confidence.”
His business has been successful the past few years, and now Mr Komsan has around 50 booths a day contributing total sales value of 230 million baht a year. This year he set a target of 350 million baht in sales.
Now his products are used in six-star hotels in Thailand and many other countries, he says.
Mr Komsan has expanded distribution to Shanghai and other cities in China with a contract to supply 10 million pillows to the Chinese distribution company over three years.
With business growing, Mr Komsan plans to list on the Stock Exchange of Thailand in a next couple of years.