Regional player adds voice to FR discussion
David Perry, Executive editor -- Furniture Today, April 14, 2003
Carolina Mattress Guild, which introduced a new fire-resistant line of bedding at the just-concluded market, enters the growing debate about mattress flammability at a sensitive moment. And the message it's delivering — that new fire-resistant bedding can be made affordably and comfortably — is one that runs counter to the position taken by the influential International Sleep Products Assn.
Perhaps even more troubling for the industry, officials at Carolina Mattress Guild, a regional bedding producer based in Thomasville, N.C., are criticizing what they see as some major producers' reluctance to change.
Now it's true that a relatively small regional producer has much less at stake here than the national bedding producers, who can ill afford to make any mistakes on the flammability front.
But the actions taken by Carolina Mattress Guild already have gotten the attention of at least one key figure on the flammability front in California. And other bedding producers are paying attention too.
The flammability issue heated up recently when ISPA's president, Richard Doyle, wrote a letter to a top California regulator questioning the reasonableness, cost and timing of California's proposed open-flame mattress flammability standards. The standards cannot be met in a way to produce bedding that is both comfortable and affordable, Doyle asserted.
That brought a strong rejoinder from Neal Grigg, president of Carolina Mattress Guild.
"Evidently we stirred up a hornet's nest with our announcement of introducing our Safe Dreams line of fire-resistant bedding products," Grigg said in a letter to me. "I just finished reading your story on the letter by Dick Doyle to Lynn Morris, chief of the California Bureau of Home Furnishings and Thermal Insulation.
"The entire fire-resistant matter has been under so much perceived controversy that one could lose sight of the goal, which is to make safer products. I take exception to (Doyle's) letter. It is most certainly possible to make products which comply but do not compromise the feel and affordability — plus look darn good," he wrote.
"Our opinion is that, rather than spend too much effort trying to resist the changes, manufacturers should be working to see how they could not only meet the new standards but also do so positively," Grigg added.
Retail reaction to the Safe Dreams line at market surpassed the company's expectations. Retailers were "amazed at both the plushness and the affordability," Grigg said.
It's worth noting that Carolina Mattress Guild doesn't ship its bedding lines to California, and thus won't be required to meet the new California standards when they go into effect on Jan. 1. But Grigg believes his company "should be offering the products today and giving our customers the advantage of providing the consumer bedding with not only comfort, style and design but also the safest product to date."
That sounds like a good marketing message to us.
