HSL switches from carpets to mattresses:

Carpet market meets hard times

As noted earlier, the European carpet sector is in a time of change. Consumers have followed the fashion trend and replaced carpeted floors with hard surfaces made from wood or laminate. Tufted carpet production reached a peak in Europe in 1997, and has been declining at around 3.5 percent annually ever since, said Van't Klooster (see chart below).

The decline in latex foam as a backing material for carpets has been even more severe, he said. Van't Klooster showed a chart indicating that total latex foam carpet-backings for tufted carpet declined from a peak of 380 million m[sup.2] in 1991, to just under 150 million m[sup.2] a decade later.

He said this story reflected the decline in quality of the carpet-backing material, as manufacturers added more and more filler-rising to a maximum of over 180 phr-to reduce cost. This in turn …

Ref: Carpet & Rug Institutes Carpet Maintenance Guidelines Products I Like To Clean My Carpets: Febreze Carpet care