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Specialty bedding moves front and center in San Fran

By David Perry -- Furniture Today, February 8, 2004

SAN FRANCISCO — Specialty bedding stole the show at the market here, with introductions including a slew of visco-elastic mattresses and futons, a new entry in the airbed category and several foam mattresses.

Bedding major Simmons made news on the innerspring front, introducing its new Cable Coil design on the West Coast.

"Retailers are quickly hovering around that Cable Coil," said Don Hofmann, vice president of new business development. "We've gotten a very strong reaction to it. It's a legitimate innovation. Its impact on motion separation and durability is incredible."

The Cable Coil, incorporated in new Beautyrest models, features three wires wound together, a new construction in the industry.

Hofmann said Simmons continues to introduce products and programs designed to drive average unit selling prices upward. Simmons' AUSP is 42% higher than the industry average, he said.

Restonic, meanwhile, rolled out its first airbeds (see story below).

On the visco front, industry leader Tempur-Pedic brought its CelebrityBed, a pillowtop model introduced in High Point in October, to the West Coast.

"Reaction to the CelebrityBed has been excellent," said David Fogg, president of Tempur-Pedic's retail division. He said the company also got a good response to its new gallery presentation, which groups all three of the company's visco mattresses.

Natura entered the visco category with its Element mattress, constructed of visco-elastic foam and polyurethane foam, and incorporating wool, one of the company's trademark materials.

"If you don't have a visco product on the sales floor, the consumers will go and look for it because of all the hype," said Larry Klein, director of sales at Natura. "We are rounding out our offerings with visco. Some of our dealers like to work with one company rather than two or three."

Ergo-Pedic joined the visco wars with two new visco-elastic beds, which retail at $1,090 and $1,290, for a queen-sized mattress only. The Downey, Calif.- based company produces visco bedding at its 16,000-square-foot factory there.

George Klause, Ergo-Pedic vice president, said the company's Body Web Support System, woven into the mattress just below the layer of visco foam, "makes this a better bed" than competitors' models.

Perfect Rest Bedding, the bedding division of Emerald Home Furnishings, introduced a visco bed that retails at $1,299 for a queen-sized set. "This is a new introduction and it's doing great," said Jon Ritchie, general manager of Perfect Rest. "Visco is the hot product in the industry."

Perfect Rest, which offers a variety of types of bedding retailing from $199 to $1,399, ships to seven Western states. Interest in the line continues to grow, Ritchie said.

Boyd Specialty Sleep, a leader in specialty sleep, enjoyed a busy market.

"I was surprised there was as much traffic as there was, given that the show dates were moved forward," said Denny Boyd, president. "That shows the San Francisco Mart did a good job communicating that change to retailers. Overall, I was pleased with the traffic we had."

Boyd said retailers are looking for specialty sleep vendors with stability and broad product offerings, "and we have both of those."

Cannon Sleep Products had "tremendous traffic" and got a good response to its futon and innerspring bedding lines, which include visco offerings, said sales manager Bruce Glassman.

Sterling Sleep Systems also did well with its specialty sleep lineup, which includes bedding that offers consumers a choice of a layer of latex or visco foam underneath the quilt, said Tony Hochschild, president.

And Otis Bed Mfg. scored with its Pulsar visco futon at $399 retail in queen. Otis also showed a ready-to-assemble steel foundation.

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