Simon Spinks, chairman of Leeds, England-based mattress and bed manufacturer Harrison Spinks, has been awarded an OBE in the King’s 2025 New Year’s Honours List in recognition of his contributions to the mattress and bed industry. The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry honoring those who have made special contributions or achievements to their country.
Spinks was twice National Bed Federation president and currently chairs its Sustainability Forum. Under his guidance, the company has been awarded eight Queen’s and King’s Awards for Enterprise, holding awards in Innovation, Sustainability and International Trade.
According to a news release, Simon Spinks holds 100 patents globally relating to innovations in pocket spring and equipment design. Over his 35+-year career, Spinks invented the glue-free, fine-wire Microcoil pocket spring and pioneered innovations to replace glues and foams that make mattresses difficult to recycle. In 2008, Spinks acquired a farm to grow natural, sustainable, and biodegradable mattress fillings, making Harrison Spinks one of the UK’s largest industrial hemp growers with a carbon-negative crop and zero waste. The company was also the first in the industry to use Traceable British Wool in its mattresses and weaves its own fire-retardant luxury mattress ticking, which is naturally fire-retardant without FR chemicals due to its high wool content.
Under Spinks’ leadership, the family business has grown from 50 to more than 650 employees, fueling economic growth in the West Yorkshire area where the company is based, the news release said.
“To receive the award was a total surprise and an absolute honor,” Spinks said. “I have been very fortunate to have a career in an industry that I truly love and where I have been able to combine a number of passions including, luxury sustainable sleep and innovation in engineering. It could not have been possible without the support and contributions of my family, colleagues and peers past and present. I am thrilled and delighted.”
