Sleep Number Blames Chip Shortage for Subpar Q4 Performance

Sleep Number Corp.’s stock price continued to tumble in early trading Thursday (Feb. 24), dropping more than 3% after a 14% dip Wednesday (Feb. 23) that came after the mattress and bedding manufacturer missed its fourth-quarter earnings expectations because of the late arrival of semiconductor parts.

Sleep Number didn’t say which supplier’s delinquency cost the company millions of dollars in sales for the three-month period that ended Jan. 1, but noted it led to its striking dip in December. The late arrival of the chips slashed the company’s net sales by more than $125 million, equal to about 2.5 weeks of deliveries, and sales for the quarter fell 13% compared to the previous year, down to $492 million.

Full-year net sales jumped to a record $2.18 billion.

“The fourth quarter proved to be the most challenging as we received semiconductor components too late in December (to fulfill) our planned deliveries,” Chief Executive Shelly Ibach said in a statement. “Global electronics supplies remain constrained in the near-term,” she said, while demand for its beds remains “strong.”

Sleep Number expects its earnings-per-share to grow 10% to 15% in 2022 compared to 2021, assuming there are “continued global electronics supply constraints with the greatest impact expected in the first quarter.”

Related: Retail Sustainability Trend Goes From Resale to Refuse With Furniture Made From Trash

While Sleep Number is dealing with supply chain issues, Brooklyn-based furniture maker REDU is looking to tap unprecedented consumer demand for sustainable, reusable products that cut waste and reduce stress on the environment, expanding the reach of its recycled furniture by using an interactive retail showroom in Manhattan’s Upper East Side.

Resale platforms such as Kaiyo or Chairish have created marketplaces that pair up secondhand furniture buyers and sellers, and other brands are striving to shrink their carbon footprint and reduce waste in other ways.

Pottery Barn offers reclaimed wood furniture made with salvaged materials, and Crate & Barrel sells a line of furniture that is certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC).