Select Comfort tightens grip as top retailer
Variety of channels shows there are many ways to sell bedding successfully
By David Perry -- Furniture Today, August 11, 2003
High Point — Air bed producer and retailer Select Comfort has lengthened its lead over the rest of the field in Furniture/ Today's latest ranking of the Top 25 bedding retailers.
The annual report puts Minneapolis-based Select Comfort comfortably on top in the competitive bedding marketplace, with bedding sales last year of $311.8 million. That's a healthy 28.8% increase over the company's 2001 bedding sales of $242.1 million.
Expanding distribution, a powerful national advertising program, new products and savvy marketing all combined to keep Select Comfort on a fast-growth track last year.
Cincinnati-based Federated Department Stores, a close second to Select Comfort on last year's list, saw its bedding sales decline by 6.4% and now occupies the No. 4 spot on the list, with bedding sales in 2002 of $220 million.
The new No. 2 player is Houston-based The Mattress Firm, which posted a 6.4% increase last year to boost its bedding sales to $234 million.
Sleepy's, a New York-based sleep specialist, jumped from No. 6 last year to No. 3, with bedding sales of $227 million, a 14.1% increase.
Once again in the No. 5 position is Sam's Club, the fast-growing unit of Wal-Mart, which generated bedding sales last year of $210 million, a 5% increase over the 2001 bedding volume of $200 million.
Wal-Mart itself also makes the list this year at No. 19, largely on the strength of a strong futon program. Wal-Mart's total bedding revenues last year are estimated at $60 million.
Mattress Discounters, which reorganized its business, saw its bedding sales slip from $218 million in 2001 to $199 million in 2002, an 8.7% decline. That bedding specialty retailer holds down the No. 6 spot on this year's list.
Once again in the No. 7 slot is Addison,Texas-based Mattress Giant, which posted a 5.7% sales increase last year, lifting its bedding sales to $184 million.
Furniture retailer Rooms To Go, which ranked No. 10 last year, moves up two notches, to No. 8, and is the highest-ranking furniture retailer on the list. Its bedding volume jumped 8.3% to $130 million last year.
The St. Louis-based May Department Stores group holds down the No. 9 spot, with bedding sales last year of $130 million, flat with 2001.
At No. 10 is the Berkshire Hathaway furniture division, comprised of Star, Jordan's, R.C. Willey and Nebraska Furniture Mart, with bedding sales last year of $127 million.
The composition of the Top 10 reveals the diverse nature of bedding distribution these days. Five of the Top 10 are bedding specialty retailers, the fastest-growing channel of distribution in the last several years, according to Furniture/Today bedding distribution studies.
And the Top Three are all bedding specialists.
The Top 10 also includes two department store groups, two furniture store operations, and one warehouse club.
A look at the Top 25 as a whole shows a preponderance of bedding specialty retailers. The 11 specialists are Select Comfort, The Mattress Firm, Sleepy's, Mattress Discounters, Mattress Giant, Rockaway Bedding, The Sleep Train, Dial-A-Mattress, Slumberland, Sit 'n Sleep and Sleep Fair/Mattress Warehouse.
Some of those specialists, while not in the Top 10, posted substantial sales increases last year. California-based The Sleep Train, for example, boosted its bedding volume 28% to $84.5 million. Another California-based bedding specialist, Sit 'n Sleep, posted a 25.8% bedding gain to record 2002 bedding sales of $59 million.
And Slumberland, based in Little Canada, Minn., recorded a 20% bedding sales gain to $60 million.
The next-highest channel of distribution on the list is furniture stores, with seven (counting the Berkshire Hathaway furniture division as one). They are Rooms To Go, Berkshire Hathaway, Art Van, Levitz Home Furnishings, Havertys, Rhodes and Value City.
Four department stores are on the list. They are Federated, May, JCPenney and Sears. Discount department store Wal-Mart is also represented. Sears, which relaunched its bedding program in 2001, saw a 50% increase in 2002 based on full-year sales for stores that were only open for part of 2001, plus the addition of bedding in several more stores.
Finally, there are two warehouse clubs: Sam's Club and Costco.
Some other types of retailers are contenders for the list. Closeout specialist Big Lots, for example, generated a bedding volume last year of approximately $40 million, according to the company.
That shows that there are many different ways to find success in bedding.
| Top 25 bedding retailers | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rank | Company, home base | Estimated bedding sales in $ millions | Percent change | |
| 2002 | 2001 | 2001 to 2002 | ||
| 1. Federated divisions include Macy's East, Macy's West, Rich's Lazarus Goldsmith's, Bloomingdale's, Burdines and The Bon Marche. 2. May divisions include Filene's/Kaufmann's, Robinsons-May/Meier & Frank, Hecht's, Foley's and Famous-Barr. Sales figures are for conventional mattresses/boxsprings, foam bedding, futons, air beds, adjustable beds and waterbeds only. Does not include headboards, frames, mattress pads, pillows and related products. All sales information, except for that supplied by publicly held companies that break out bedding sales, are Furniture/Today market research estimates. All data for calendar 2002 and 2001. |
||||
| 1 | Select Comfort, Minneapolis | $311.8 | $242.1 | 28.8% |
| 2 | The Mattress Firm, Houston | 234.0 | 220.0 | 6.4% |
| 3 | Sleepy's, Bethpage, N.Y. | 227.0 | 199.0 | 14.1% |
| 4 | Federated Department Stores, Cincinnati1 | 220.0 | 235.0 | -6.4% |
| 5 | Sam's Club, Bentonville, Ark. | 210.0 | 200.0 | 5.0% |
| 6 | Mattress Discounters, Upper Marlboro, Md. | 199.0 | 218.0 | -8.7% |
| 7 | Mattress Giant, Addison, Texas | 184.0 | 174.0 | 5.7% |
| 8 | Rooms To Go, Seffner, Fla. | 130.0 | 120.0 | 8.3% |
| 9 | May Department Stores, St. Louis2 | 130.0 | 130.0 | 0.0% |
| 10 | Berkshire Hathaway furniture div., Omaha, Neb. | 127.0 | 120.0 | 5.8% |
| 11 | Rockaway Bedding, Randolph, N.J. | 104.0 | 94.0 | 10.6% |
| 12 | JCPenney, Plano, Texas | 100.0 | 103.0 | -2.9% |
| 13 | Art Van, Warren, Mich. | 97.0 | 100.0 | -3.0% |
| 14 | Sears, Hoffman Estates, Ill. | 90.0 | 60.0 | 50.0% |
| 15 | The Sleep Train, Citrus Heights, Calif. | 84.5 | 66.0 | 28.0% |
| 16 | Dial-A-Mattress, Long Island City, N.Y. | 81.0 | 90.0 | -10.0% |
| 17 | Levitz Home Furnishings, Woodbury, N.Y. | 75.0 | 70.0 | 7.1% |
| 18 | Slumberland, Little Canada, Minn. | 60.0 | 50.0 | 20.0% |
| 19 | Wal-Mart, Bentonville, Ark. | 60.0 | 51.0 | 17.6% |
| 20 | Costco, Issaquah, Wash. | 60.0 | 55.0 | 9.1% |
| 21 | Sit 'n Sleep, Carson, Calif. | 59.0 | 46.9 | 25.8% |
| 22 | Havertys, Atlanta | 57.0 | 55.0 | 3.6% |
| 23 | Sleep Fair/Mattress Warehouse, Akron, Ohio | 54.0 | 63.0 | -14.3% |
| 24 | Rhodes, Atlanta | 48.0 | 45.0 | 6.7% |
| 25 | Value City Furniture, Columbus, Ohio | 48.0 | 47.0 | 2.1% |
