Bedding enjoys solid market
By David Perry -- Furniture Today, May 2, 2004
HIGH POINT — HIGH POINT— Buyers at market liked new bedding lines, including a broad assortment of specialty sleep offerings, and didn't balk at some higher prices for innerspring models.
Their orders should keep visco-elastic and latex bedding on the upswing, and will also solidify assortments of conventional innerspring bedding models.
"We've had a real good market," reported Dave Clark, vice president of Englander, which introduced a new marketing campaign with the theme, "sleep energy equals mattress comfort squared," or e=mc².
Hypnos, showing its high-end line of beds carrying two Royal Warrants from the United Kingdom, was also pleased. "If you are proactive in targeting new prospects, they will come," said Adrian Jones, director of sales.
United Sleep Products got a strong response to new specialty sleep products, including latex and visco beds.
"The foot traffic was off for some of the smaller independents and even some sleep shops," said Tom Nieman, United's vice president of sales. "But the major players were here, and probably more of them were in our space than have been."
The Summit Furniture Group showed four models of Chinese-made mattresses with a variety of value-added features, said Terry Batka, president. "The response has been quite good," he said.
Therapedic did well with its new four-model visco lineup, and also found support for updated display materials on its latex PureTouch line. Those materials include color-coordinated foot protectors, dust ruffles, display banners and pillow sachets, according to Gerry Borreggine, vice president of sales and marketing.
"Traffic has been brisk in our showroom," reported Mark Hobson, senior vice president of marketing at Sealy. "Dealers were very pleased with the new products we introduced. The new Bassett DreamMaker line has a meaningful point of difference versus our other brands, and brings superior construction and outstanding value versus the competition."
Hobson said retailers "responded enthusiastically" to the new "It's a Sealy" TV spots, and many expressed interest in promoting Sealy's role with the U.S. Olympic team.
Kingsdown got a "phenomenal" response to its promotion for the Children's Miracle Network, said Tom McLean, senior vice president. "A number of retailers see the value of social marketing."
Eric Hinshaw, Kingsdown's CEO, said he was pleased to see furniture stores stepping up their commitment to bedding. "We have seen much more interest by furniture stores in their bedding sales and in their bedding department, and in the future of bedding in their total package," he said.
Fire-resistant bedding lines were well received, according to two producers offering FR products.
"We continue to see more and more enthusiasm for the value our FireBlocker system brings to consumers and retailers alike," said Tim Close, vice president of marketing communications at Serta. "We've had lots of interest in those retailers we don't sell who want to learn more about it, and the people we do sell are gaining enthusiasm and want more marketing support because they are getting a good response."
Carolina Mattress Guild continued to see support build for its Safe Dreams line of fire-resistant bedding. "It is growing and growing," said Neal Grigg, president.
Comfor-Pedic, a new visco bedding vendor, said it will incorporate FR protection in its entire Chinese-made lineup by July. "In everything we do, we try to set the standard," said Jack Squires, president. "We want to be on the leading edge of comfort and safety."
He said FR protection is good for consumers. "To spend a little more to increase your safety in a fire is a pretty small price to pay for insurance," Squires said.
Futon supplier Gold Bond said retailers are optimistic about business in the coming months.
"Retailers' advertising plans for May are significantly ahead of where they were last year," said Bob Naboicheck, president. "That's the ultimate indication of their confidence."
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New bedding products stir interest
Apr 24, 2004
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