Sealy unveils FR plans
By David Perry -- Furniture Today, March 14, 2004
Trinity, N.C. — Trinity, N.C.— Sealy plans to begin production of new fire-resistant bedding lines for sale in California by October, ahead of that state's enforcement of new open-flame flammability laws in January 2005.
But the world's largest bedding producer will not bring all its U.S. products to the California standard this year.
"We have no intention to convert our entire production to the California product by January of 2005," said Dave McIlquham, Sealy's president and CEO.
He maintained that not enough fire-resistant material is now available to convert all the bedding industry's products to the California standard. "There is not an effective industry solution that we can implement on a national basis," he said.
Sealy officials are burning 70 to 100 beds per month and haven't been able to find "a repeatable solution that is transparent," he said. McIlquaham said the solution must be cost-effective, cannot sacrifice comfort, must maintain a high level of effectiveness, and must be available in quantities to meet broad national distribution.
He acknowledged that Sealy must be ready to meet the needs of national retailers, and realizes that in a "relatively short period of time" it must be ready to roll out FR products to every plant if a national retailer wants those products.
Asked when that would be, he responded: "We plan to be ready by the end of this year if a national retailer wants the same product" with FR protection.
New FR lines will affect Sealy's manufacturing processes, he said, and the introduction of FR protection will not be inexpensive. "The solutions that seem most plausible would require fairly significant cost increases," McIlquham said.
If the ultimate cost is $100 or more per sleep set at retail, national retailers would face "a big decision" on how competitive their FR-protected products would be in the marketplace, he said.
Asked if Sealy might pass along a single price increase to retailers that would cover the cost of FR and the rapidly escalating cost of steel components, McIlquham said: "These are two separate factors that will drive prices higher over the next year. The significant steel price increases affecting our entire industry could result in pricing actions over the next 60 days. When we introduce products containing the new FR-compliant materials later this year, prices on those models will reflect the higher cost of materials."
California has said it will begin enforcing its new FR standards on Jan. 1, 2005. Asked if Sealy believes that enforcement will indeed begin at that time, he said, "We as a company are working toward that date.
"To that end, we are building a major flammability testing facility on our campus, which should be completed later this year. This well enable us to design, test and validate a broad range of FR barriers, solutions and new products, including those of our competitors."
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