Latex shortages? Not in High Point showrooms
By Larry Thomas, Bedding editor -- Furniture Today, October 28, 2001
Although supplies of latex have been tight ever since the Latex Foam Products plant in Connecticut burned down in May, the crunch wasn't evident in bedding showrooms at the October market.
Latex seemed to be everywhere. Producers have been securing latex foam from Europe to Sri Lanka. Some even has been coming from Connecticut, where Latex Foam Products recently opened a temporary site to fabricate latex.
Specialty sleep producers Boyd, Classic and Comfortaire all showed new models made predominately of latex, while innerspring powerhouse Sealy again displayed the Reflexions latex line that was rolled out in April.
"We're starting to get good placement on it," said Jim Ross, marketing manager for Reflexions. "We're going to do well with the line."
He shouldn't have to worry about adequate supplies of latex. Sapsa Bedding, a Paris-based latex producer that's one of the largest in Europe, was purchased by Sealy earlier this year.
The foam bedding rollout at Comfortaire, its first non-airbed sleep sets, is part of an aggressive plan to broaden distribution in furniture stores and sleep shops. Larry Wride, vice president of sales, said his newly expanded sales force covers the entire United States, Canada and Mexico.
"We're targeting accounts in all areas of the country … as opposed to being a regional player," Wride told us at High Point. "Since all of our beds are UPS shippable, a retailer doesn't have to have a lot of inventory."
The company, a division of Greenville, S.C.-based Park Place Corp., plans to show at the San Francisco and Tupelo furniture markets next year.
Chittenden & Eastman, the Burlington, Iowa, producer whose products include a private-label line for Thomasville, is now making the entire Thomasville line at the Ontario, Calif., plant where its Aireloom Bedding unit is based.
"Our program with Thomasville continues to grow," said C&E Chairman Don Robb. "The linkage of our bedding program to their furniture program continues to strengthen."
In addition to a bedding line created exclusively for Thomasville stores, Robb's company has developed sleep sets to coordinate with Thomasville's successful Hemingway and Bella Serra bedroom groups. Next on tap, Robb said, is a sleep set to go with the new Kent Park group.
Upholstery producer England, the La-Z-Boy subsidiary which jumped into bedding a year ago, has placed the product at more than 200 retailers, said Cindy Williams, sales manager for the line. The list includes Top 100 player Leath Furniture, a longtime England upholstery dealer. "Our retailers have really embraced the concept," Williams said.
One of her biggest challenges has been educating the sales force, most with no previous experience selling a quick-turn product like bedding. However, she said England's practice of delivering upholstery every two weeks — a far cry from the six- to 16-week delivery schedules of most upholstery producers — has made the job a bit easier.
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