What do you think of when you hear the word “purple?” I admit that I did get a purple shirt to specifically wear for this story. My videographer, Ed Wilets, and I did some traveling to find the answer to this colorful Utah Success Stories feature. I will tease you with the fact that last year this Utah based company did between 400 and 425 Million dollars in sales.

We met Joe Megibow, the C.E.O. of Purple, at their Lehi, Utah showroom. He told us; “Purple is the color of royalty. It is a premium color. These are the kinds of things are all about our premium beds and the experiences we like to create around our products.”

You may have seen their video that has had over 350 Million views. but did you know that the technology for this premium company, Purple Innovation, started 30 plus years ago with gel medical beds and cushions?

I was impressed with how enthusiastic Joe is about their product lines. He got animated as he told me about the core of their business; “Gel has magical properties. It stretches but instantly recoils and bends back. It is highly durable. It provides an enormous amount of support. It’s got nice texture to it and doesn’t absorb a lot of heat. It’s very temperature neutral.”

Purple’s showroom in Lehi shows off its’ variety of Utah made bedding. Joe continued; “This giant grid waffle shape, that’s where the real magic happens which is what we’ve got in our beds, our pillows and our seat cushions.

Purple beds are manufactured right here in the state of Utah out in Grantsville. It was road trip time.

I was amazed at how large Purple’s manufacturing plant is…imagine the size of three Walmart’s put together. As Joe took us on a tour, the scope of the operation is pretty amazing. I even got a chance to help assemble a mattress.

My favorite part of the tour was how they are able to scale their business by preparing hundreds of thousands of mattresses last year to ship to retailers and direct to consumers. That’s a lot of mattresses.

They have special machinery that compresses the mattresses and puts them into a tube that reminded me of a purple tootsie roll. Even with all the fancy packaging and shipping, Joe punctuated their goal; “It’s not about a better way to buy a mattress. It’s always been about buying a better mattress.

With another Utah Success Story, I’m Doug Jessop, ABC4 News.

You can follow me at www.DougJessop.com, on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

I’m blessed to do an number of news series that air on ABC4 News. It is also my pleasure to have a number of my stories appear on various Nexstar Media Group TV station websites.

You can see my positive business profiles called “Utah Success Stories” every Sunday in the ABC4 News at 10 p.m. and online at www.abc4.com/success.

Everyone has a Story. Stories have Power. They help us Understand each other. “Jessop’s Journal” features in-depth, on-demand interviews with people from all walks of life. A new segment is published every week at www.abc4.com/journal. Sometimes I interview musicians on Jessop’s Journal and ask them to perform – those musical specials are called “Jessop’s Jukebox” and are also available at www.abc4.com/journal .

Stories happen everywhere. My “on the road” series, called “Jessop’s Journeys”, highlights “People, Places and Things you might not know about.” It airs Wednesdays in “Good Things Utah” from 9 a.m. – 11 a.m. and are archived at www.abc4.com/journeys.