PM inspects $75k 'innovative' mattresses

What does a $75,000 mattress feel like?

Ask the Chinese.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull toured the factory floor of A H Beard mattresses in Sydney's southwest on Thursday.

The family-owned business has been selling mattresses since 1899, back when they were made from straw.

It's a far cry from the luxury mattresses they're now exporting to China, for the price of a house deposit.

"You don't have to be a brilliant software engineer in a T-shirt to be innovative," Mr Turnbull said.

"Here you have brilliant designers, brilliant embroiderers, brilliant engineers in a traditional business that are coming up with the best products in the world."

China now accounts for 3 per cent of the company's sales.

It's exporting a container every three days, compared with every three months not long ago.

Tariffs on the mattresses started at 19 per cent and will reach zero by 2019 thanks to the government's free trade agreement with China, Mr Turnbull said.

"I don't think the founders of your business would have ever imagined they'd be selling mattresses to China, but here you are," he said.