Activity brisk in bedding
By Michael J. Knell -- Furniture Today, January 20, 2003
Toronto — Buyers snapped up the broad array of new bedding offered by producers large and small at this year's winter market here, including revamped lines at Simmons Canada, Sealy Canada and Bedford.
Ron Dennis, vice president of marketing at Simmons Canada, said the new line offered "a lot of good technical stories. The features are going to be the things that people will shop for, and they're also looking for strong price-value statements."
Despite the changes in its line, Sealy Canada's core Correct Comfort offerings remain essentially intact, said newly appointed Chief Operating Officer Tony Smith.
"The changes we made are all designed to add value in a very real way," he said. "Our objective is to pick up market share at the value price points while adding quality and service to the mix."
At Bedford Furniture, which makes both the King Koil and Restonic brands in Canada, Gary Baskerville, vice president of sales and marketing, said, "We largely re-invented our entire line for 2003, from our value-price products all the way through to premium goods."
Technology drove two significant trends evident at this market: the broad use of Marshall-type pocket coils at the promotional and entry level price points, and the use of tempered pocket coils at the high end.
For example, Sealy Canada debuted Sealyrest, a value-oriented pocket coil line with a suggested retail of C$699 to C$999 in queen. It also increased the coil count at the entry level of its Posturepedic program from 520 to 600.
Simmons Canada launched Dreamscape, a promotional pocket coil number designed to retail at C$699 to C$999 in queen in both tailored and pillowtop models.
At the high end, Sealy Canada and Bedford introduced tempered coil product, believing the support the technology gives will be a winner on retail floors across the country.
"We had tremendous response to the PostureTouch state-of-the-art pocket coil design," Sealy's Smith said. "There's not a lot of floor space at the high end and there's a lot of pressure for it to perform."
Baskerville noted that Bedford's tempered coil product, called King Koil Spinal Contour, doesn't stray too far from the popular price points — at C$700 to C$1,499 in queen.
Other bedding segments didn't go unnoticed here. Therapedic launched a foam-encased latex line called Therafoam. Michael Dunlop, vice president of sales and marketing at Therapedic Toronto, said that at price points ranging from C$999 to $C2,999 retail, it got wide placements. The company also launched Eclipse, a spinal zone support unit at the high end.
"We think we can reach double-digit growth this year with both Eclipse and Therafoam," Dunlop said.
Simmons Canada unveiled an adjustable bed called Living Right, with the mechanism hidden in the box spring.
"It doesn't look like an adjustable bed at all," Dennis said. "We've taken the adjustable bed out of the medical 'need' category and given it a lifestyle story."
One interesting point emerged here: Nearly every producer had at least one one-sided or no-flip model on display, but they weren't the focus of conversation or order-writing.
