Sourcing Ottoman Bed Bases Wholesale: What to Check Before You Commit to a Pallet

Buying bed bases wholesale means buying by the pallet, not by the unit. That single fact shapes everything else in this guide — the specification you should ask for, how a price is actually calculated, and what has to be in place before a supplier will dispatch to you.

What “wholesale only” actually means here

A pallet holds 30 frames of one size. That’s the minimum order — not a bulk discount threshold, the starting point. There’s no route to buying five or ten frames at a wholesale price, because there’s no such thing as a partial pallet in the freight calculation. If you want to test a supplier before committing to a full pallet, see the note on samples further down.

This matters when you’re comparing suppliers. A site that lets you add a single frame to a basket at a “trade price” is selling retail with a discount code, not supplying wholesale. Genuine wholesale terms — pallet minimums, ex works pricing, freight quoted separately — are a reasonable proxy for whether you’re actually dealing with a manufacturer or an importer relabelling someone else’s stock.

The six specification points to compare before you ask for a price

Before you request a quotation from anyone, get these six figures in writing. They’re the difference between comparing suppliers properly and comparing marketing copy:

1. External frame dimensions in millimetres — not the mattress size the frame is “for”. A frame is built larger than its nominal mattress size so the mattress sits inside it correctly, and the gap varies between manufacturers.
2. Number and rating of gas springs. Every size in our range uses two gas springs, rated 500N to 1200N depending on size — see the full breakdown below.
3. Slat count, given as a total with the per-side split (for two-piece frames), not just a bare number. “40 slats” tells you nothing if you don’t know whether that’s 40 total or 40 per side.
4. Steel profile of the frame — the box-tube dimensions, not just “steel construction”. Ours is 40 × 30 × 1.5 mm, with a 40 × 50 × 1.5 mm reinforcing beam on every size except Single.
5. Frames per pallet and pallet weight. This is what your freight cost is actually built from.
6. Commodity code, which determines the duty rate that applies when the goods cross into the UK.

The table below has all six for our range. If another supplier won’t give you a straight answer on any of these six points, that’s worth noting before you go further.

Minimum order, mixed pallets and how the freight rate is calculated

One pallet of one size is the minimum order. You can mix sizes across pallets by arrangement — a pallet of Double and a pallet of King in the same shipment is a normal request, not a special case. The freight rate follows the total number of pallets in the shipment, not which sizes are on them, so combining sizes to reach a more efficient shipment size is never penalised.

Freight is quoted separately from the ex works frame price, on Delivered At Place terms — Polish export clearance, UK import clearance and delivery booking-in are included in the freight figure. The exact cost depends on your delivery postcode and the number of pallets, so it’s confirmed with your quotation rather than fixed on this site. For the customs side of a purchase like this — duty, VAT, EORI — see our guide on importing furniture from the EU.

What you have to have in place before the first delivery

Four things need to be sorted before we dispatch your first order:

• A GB EORI number, required to act as importer of record for UK customs
• A UK VAT registration, used for import VAT accounting
• A purchase order confirming sizes, quantities and delivery address
• Written confirmation of how you’ll unload — a pallet weighs 800–1,000 kg, so a forklift or loading dock is required. There’s no tail-lift option at this weight.

None of these are unusual for a business that already imports goods, but if this is your first order from a continental manufacturer, sort the EORI number and VAT registration before you ask for a firm quotation — it saves a delay at the point of dispatch rather than at the point of enquiry.

Sample frames: why one frame costs more per unit than thirty

If you want to see a frame before committing to a pallet, a single frame can ship by parcel carrier. The unit cost is higher than the per-frame price on a full pallet, because the pallet freight rate is built around 30 frames travelling together — a single frame doesn’t get the benefit of that shared cost. Most buyers find it more economical to place one pallet as a first order rather than pay the parcel-carrier premium for a sample, since the per-frame freight cost on a pallet is far lower.

From enquiry to delivered pallet — the timeline

Once you send an enquiry with your sizes, pallet count and delivery postcode, you’ll have a firm quotation within 24 hours on a working day. After that:

• Orders are confirmed against a proforma invoice, payable 100% in advance
• Production starts once payment has cleared — typically 3–4 weeks
• Transit adds roughly a week on top

That’s the full sequence from a first enquiry to a pallet arriving at your address. If any of the six specification points above raise a question specific to your business — private label packaging, a non-standard length, or a heavier gas spring for a denser mattress — mention it in your enquiry and it’s priced as part of the same quotation.