Hickory Springs employs dual approach to FR market
David Perry -- Furniture Today, June 28, 2004
Hickory, N.C. — Hickory Springs is serving the emerging fire-resistant bedding components category with two different product lines.
The lines are competitors, but that isn't new for Hickory Springs, which, in a sense, competes with itself by offering products as different as springs and foam.
The company was the first to announce an FR partnership with another supplier, a development that could gain momentum in the bedding marketplace.
Last year, Hickory Springs teamed up with Freudenberg Nonwovens, one of the world's largest producers of nonwovens, and is marketing and distributing Freudenberg's FR lines, which carry the Viledon name.
Hickory Springs Converting, a division based here, is handling the Freudenberg products. It will be shipping those products from seven facilities coast to coast.
"We have been very pleased with the reaction" to the Freudenberg products, said Rick Anthony, national sales manager for HS Converting.
Another Hickory Springs unit, Newton, N.C.-based InnoTherm, recently established a partnership with Western Nonwovens. Western will be the exclusive marketer of Hickory Springs' fire-retardant cotton, which is used in blends with polyester fiber to create a barrier batting.
Greg Gabrel, general manager of InnoTherm, said the partnership with Western is "a natural fit."
