Alan Scott, the Sales & Marketing Director of Somnus, says: ‘We are delighted with the enthusiastic response we received at the IMM show. The launch went better than we could have imagined and the Somnus range was very well received by both trade delegates and members of the public.”

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“We call this the toy shed,” confides Mr Spinks, the company’s managing director and a member of the family that has owned the 290-employee business since 1840.

Inside the workshop are several rows of novel machines for turning out new kinds of springs – including helical springs shaped like coils of DNA and even “endless” springs where hundreds of small springs laid next to each other are formed from one extremely long piece of steel wire.

It is in the toy shed where Mr Spinks, 42, who has worked for the company since the late 1980s, devised with the help of a small team of technical experts a new “Spinks spring” that is much smaller than the conventional pocket type that goes to form many mattresses.

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Simon Spinks, managing director and part owner of Harrison Spinks, a Leeds-based mattress maker, has teamed up with US-based Johnson Controls, the world’s biggest producer of car seats, which is evaluating his invention: a new kind of miniature coiled spring. Johnson Controls, which is also among the top 10 makers of car parts by sales, believes the new spring could revolutionise the production of car seats, construction of which has barely changed for half a century.

Not only could the springs cut the weight of cars and lead to lower carbon dioxide emissions by reducing fuel consumption but they could also make car seats easier to recycle by replacing the large amounts of polyurethane foam currently used in the products. Springs are made from lengths of steel wire, which is relatively easy to recycle.

Click here to read more on the article published in The Financial Times.

The Centre itself is an eco building. By this we mean our team of designers, builders and architects have tried to come up with the most innovative and 'green' designs possible and incorporated these into a stunning yet working building.

With features such as a wild flower and grass living roof, the mezzanine level, designer lighting and hemp insullated walls, we believe the end product will be a stunning piece of individual design merited with state of the art features whilst incorporating building methods which stretch back centuries. The final build should blend into the landscape of the 17th century back-drop while promoting the endless possibilities of modern eco design.