Furniture Today - February 4, 2002

Way back in the mid-1990s, when mattress price points rarely topped $2,000, executives at Top 100 retailer Kittles decided they wanted to make a bold statement about high-end bedding. Luxury bedding was still in its infancy in those days, and there were a fair number of skeptics who believed it was a passing fancy.

• Bedding Today
• Is bedding company in the future for FBI?

• Business Today
• Leggett & Platt posts 2001 sales drop of 3.8%
• O'Sullivan's sales dip 9% in latest quarter
• Stanley results down for year; earnings beat forecast

• Insider's View
• Why pent-up demand is just about to kick in

• News
• Industrywide importing association seeks members
• Levi named president of TurnKey Products
• Nine more for Raymour
• Dot-coms: Went there, came back
• Powell consolidates distribution to N.C. site
• Upholstery mfrs. take Argentine crisis in stride
• AFMA plans imports seminar March 1

• Opinion Today
• We need to all make great music together
• Reinvention must be never-ending
• That blue light is looking pretty dim from here

• Special Report
• Curio sales, popularity are 'terrific'
• Made In America
• U.S. case goods in survival fight
• Helping U.S. mfrs. battle back
• U.S. producers find ways to compete
• Vaughan-Bassett gets supplier buy-in
• Stanley takes care in adding imports
• Market Report
• International buyers fill Cologne show
• U.S. exhibitors praise Cologne
• Maison spirited as ever, but also conservative

• Store Openings
• Thomasville store launched in Wilmington, Del.
• McDonald's Furniture installs La-Z-Boy gallery
• Restonic plant opens third Everton Mattress unit in Boise
• 10,000-sq.-ft. Ethan Allen store debuts in Chattanooga

• Up Front
• McKay's new King Koil
• Drexel Heritage promotions designed to strengthen dedicated store efforts
• Breuners consolidating Wayside, Huffman Koos
• Cologne touts flexibility, comfort
• Doblin, Circa 1801 merge into one company
• Leather suppliers not crying over Argentina
• Schumacher taps Williams as president of Waverly
• Hurtado USA hires Falken
• Crossingham joins Dinec
• Moose in new sales post