Tanda: Safety can be sold
By David Perry -- Furniture Today, January 23, 2005
Durham, N.C. — Safety messages resonate with today's consumers, according to the president of Freudenberg Nonwovens, a supplier of fire-resistant bedding products based here.
In an interview with Furniture/Today, Stephan Tanda, president and CEO of the $1 billion nonwovens unit, said he has been marketing FR products for more than a decade.
Does safety sell?
"Absolutely," Tanda responded. "Look at how automobiles are sold. Safety is the first or second point made by the automakers. When you look at what triggers the buying decision, women make the key decisions. More often than not, they have children or elderly people to care for. More often than not they think of safety.
"In many ways," he continued, "once you know the state of the art has advanced and there is a better way to protect consumers, it is good business to make products that are as safe as possible."
Freudenberg Nonwovens makes a variety of FR products for the mattress industry, including a new product, Celestia, that offers FR protection for the visco-elastic foam mattresses that are growing in popularity.
Tanda noted that safety messages can be helpful in selling mattresses, since consumers purchase those products infrequently and safety helps bolster the case for a sale.
Freudenberg has plenty of experience to back up Tanda's opinions. The company has been selling FR materials since the 1980s, starting with the aircraft seat market in Europe.
And Tanda himself has FR experience: he spent 13 years with DuPont, selling FR products to firefighters. He has headed up the Freudenberg Nonwovens unit since last January.
Born in Innsbruck, Austria, the 39-year-old Tanda has lived in the United States for the past decade, but retains his Austrian citizenship. He was educated in Austria and the United States, where he received his MBA degree. Tanda spends 10 days a month in Europe, 10 days in the U.S., and the rest of his time in Asia and other parts of the world.
Based in Weinheim, Germany, the Freudenberg Group is a $5.5 billion global company that supplies a wide variety of products to industries that include the textiles, clothing and automotive sectors.
Freudenberg Nonwovens is offering its FR products to bedding producers through a marketing arrangement with Hickory Springs. Freudenberg said it has made its first commercial sales of FR bedding products. Tanda said of the FR bedding business in the United States: "We've got some good leads and have had good discussions."
He characterized the FR mattress market as "an emerging ... exciting market."
Freudenberg's approach to that market is to identify customers' product needs, and to then design specific products to meet those needs. That is how Freudenberg has grown its business over the years, Tanda said.
He added that Freudenberg is looking for long-term partnerships and business opportunities with its FR line. "We focus on the long-term horizon, and our long-term outlook is rock solid. We have always been technologically innovative."
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Tanda: Safety can be sold
Jan 28, 2005
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