Former Mattress Firm CEO Steve Stagner (now swapped to executive chairman status) told investors yesterday that the increasingly ubiquitous bedding retailer is now planning to identify “duplicative” stores and shut them down, even potentially paying fees to break some leases early. The tactical reversal comes after last year’s rebranding of Mattress Firm’s Mattress Pro subsidiary as additional Mattress Firms, leaving even more Mattress Firm storefronts in even closer proximity than before (including the side-by-side-but-independent storefronts at the corner of Westheimer Rd. and Montrose Blvd., pictured above). Mattress Firm also recently purchased its largest national competitor, Sleepy’s; Bloomberg reports that the purchase brought Houston-based Mattress Firm’s total holdings to about 3,500 retail stores and 80 distribution centers across 48 states.

How many stores will close, and when? Mattress Firm will release the numbers (and the expected closure costs) after it wraps up a portfolio review; the plan is to start shutting underperforming doors within the fiscal year. Mattress Firm currently lists 147 Mattress Firm-branded storefronts between The Woodlands and Lake Jackson.

***

Despite the new shift to cut back on redundant real estate, the company still maintains that market conditions can support roughly 1 mattress store per 50,000 people. Mattress Firm is also preparing to move into its new headquarters, which will house about 440 employees and have room for more than 200 additional workers.

The bedding retailer’s new 130,000-sq.-ft. space, formerly occupied by Stage Stores, is just south of the 610 Loop and north across W. Belfort Dr. from UT’s planned Houston campus. The building at 10201 S. Main St., between dialysis center Renal Access Clinic and the Houston Chinese Church, is currently getting made up for use; Stagner told the HBJ last summer that the location, which has “a campus feel” itself, could get new fitness facilities, walking trails, and even a “sleep center” for product testing.

• Mattress Firm to focus on unifying brand, evaluating stores
• Photos: Take a peek inside the site of Mattress Firm’s new HQ
• Mattress Firm Holding to Acquire Sleepy’s for $780 Million
• Previously on Swamplot: Latest Addition Brings Mattress Store Count to 9 within Half a Mile of Rice Village; How It Came To Be That 2 Separate Mattress Stores with the Same Name Are Now Open Side by Side on Westheimer; Mattress Store Conquest of Westheimer Continues with Hollywood Food & Cigars Takeover; How To Get in on Double the Mattress Store Fun in Sienna Plantation; Your Map to Houston Mattress Chain Stores; How and Where Mattress Firm Is Conquering Houston, One Sleepy Strip Center Storefront at a Time; Now It’s 2 Mattress Stores Moving in Right Next To Each Other at the Corner of Westheimer and Montrose

Photo: Swamplot inbox