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Restonic revitalizing brand

By David Perry -- Furniture Today, February 9, 2009

BUFFALO, N.Y. — With a new marketing emphasis in place, Top 15 bedding producer Res-tonic is revitalizing its brand and leveraging its history of strong relationships and quality products. The producer sees opportunities in the new bedding marketplace.

President Ron Passaglia is leading the re-energizing campaign, which includes the adoption of a “virtual headquarters.”

Passaglia and his BlackBerry are the contact points for Restonic's licensees and dealers. The Atlanta resident is on the go, and where he goes, the Restonic headquarters goes with him.

On this snowy day, for example, Passaglia is inside the warm confines of the historic Buffalo Club here, which has hosted three U.S. presidents, including Theodore Roosevelt, who held his first Cabinet meeting in the building in 1901 after the assassination of William McKinley a few miles away. A plaque in the Directors' Room marks the spot.

A bust of another president (Lincoln) looked down from the wall as Passaglia and Tom Comer, president of Restonic licensee Alliance Sleep Products, outlined the steps Restonic is taking to leverage its strengths and position the company for growth. They asserted that Restonic is making the changes it needs to remain a vibrant, relevant and stable brand that offers strong profits to its retail partners.

Comer, a longtime Buffalo resident who is one of the drivers of the Restonic brand and owns Restonic factories here and in Fayetteville, N.C., said the virtual office instituted by the company is enabling it to funnel its resources into marketing programs, a key direction for any bedding producer, rather than tie those resources up with brick-and-mortar commitments.

For years, Restonic was officially headquartered in the Chicago area, first in the Loop downtown, then in Rosemont and, more recently, in Palatine, another Chicago suburb. But now the Palatine office is up for sale, and the company has gone to a virtual headquarters.

“Where is Restonic's headquarters?” Comer asked the other day as he put another log in the fire burning warmly in the dining room at the Buffalo Club. “The answer is that it is wherever Ron is, and where his BlackBerry is.”

Passaglia, he said, “has done a fantastic job gaining consensus in the brand and product directions in which we are moving. He really hit the ground running.”

That running, from licensee to licensee, to markets and to industry meetings, has marked Passaglia's tenure since the bedding veteran was named president last summer on the eve of the Las Vegas Market, where he made his first appearance for Restonic.

With today's technology, Passaglia is just a phone call away from any licensee or any customer.

“Our headquarters is not in Buffalo,” said Comer, whose company was one of the co-founders of Restonic back in 1938, and who joined the group in 1991, when he “took a swing at the American dream.” He started as a partner in the Buffalo operation and then bought it in 1997. Five years later, he bought the Restonic licensee in Fayetteville.

But Buffalo, which grew into a great U.S. city in part because of its location at the western end of the Erie Canal, is an important location for Restonic. The company operates a marketing office here, manned by Brook Palmieri, hired by Passaglia last year. In addition, The Martin Group, the advertising and marketing firm that helped develop Restonic's new branding program, is based in Buffalo. “They bring us national talent at Buffalo prices,” said Comer.

Passaglia comes to Buffalo for meetings with Palmieri, Comer, marketing committee member Laurie Tokarz (who is sales manager for the Buffalo and Fayetteville plants) and The Martin Group. He also travels to visit other Restonic licensees.

The virtual office is a “cost-effective and service-effective model,” Passaglia said. “We have redirected monies from brick and mortar to a customer-based model.” Financial and legal services remain in the Chicago area and are handled by Restonic veteran Cheryl Prindle, but are not housed in company offices. Restonic is now setting up tele-conferencing equipment to facilitate face-to-face communication between employees and service providers across the country.

Comer said Restonic realizes that it is investments in marketing that will pay the greatest dividends for the group. “We have picked up a rifle and we have a bullet aimed squarely at marketing,” he said.

Part of that strategy was accomplished with the hiring of Passaglia, a well-known and respected bedding veteran who earlier held top posts at Simmons, Verlo and Selther. “We have a marketing maven who also knows a thing or two about sales,” Comer said.

Passaglia sounded the same theme that he introduced when he joined Restonic: The need to “maintain brand integrity.”

“The brand itself is bigger than individuals,” he said. “The brand itself will carry our individual licensees and will meet their needs and meet our collective needs. We are always concerned about our separate needs, but they can only be served by the success of the brand. It in itself will trickle the benefits down that will serve all of our needs. I really believe that. It is our obligation to support the heritage and development of the brand.”

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