Sealy: 'Membership cost exceeds value received'
Here is the complete text of a statement issued Jan. 19 by Dave McIlquham, CEO of Sealy, to Sealy associates:
"I have regularly talked about our need to continually review our costs and expenses as we manage for global competitiveness and drive all non-value-added costs out of our business. We have conducted a careful assessment of our participation in the International Sleep Products Assn. with a key group of senior managers and executives who have had regular involvement with ISPA and have evaluated the support and guidance that ISPA has provided the industry in the past few years.
"We must constantly review the cost and benefit of the significant aspects of our business to insure that Sealy's cost structure and product costs are competitive. While ISPA has recently played a role in helping the bedding industry address the issue of mattress flammability, we do not see a similar industry-wide issue on the horizon. Even in the area of flammability regulation, we felt compelled to expend a significant amount of time and money over and above ISPA's efforts.
"We have also concluded that many of ISPA's activities, which Sealy helps to pay for with its significant dues, are either not relevant to Sealy nor in the best interest of Sealy. The majority of ISPA members has very different needs, issues and resources than Sealy, and relies on ISPA for support that an industry association can provide. We understand and respect that, but Sealy generally has the ability to deal with those things ourselves.
"Sealy has concluded that the cost of membership in ISPA exceeds the value we receive, and, as a result, have decided to withdraw our membership from the association. We communicated this decision to ISPA this week."
L&P: 'ISPA no longer meeting our needs'
Here is the text of a letter sent Jan. 26 by Karl Glassman, executive vice president of Leggett & Platt, to Dick Doyle, president of the International Sleep Products Assn.:
"The purpose of this letter is to confirm our conversation on Dec. 30, 2004, during which I informed you that Leggett & Platt would not be renewing our membership in ISPA.
"As you know, Leggett has had a long association with ISPA. It is with regret that we no longer feel that continued membership in the association can be justified and is therefore not in the best interest of our shareholders. In many respects, we believe that ISPA has become a supplier that is no longer meeting our needs."
BSC: 'What can we do to get them back?'
Here is the complete text of a statement released by Gerry Borreggine, chairman of the International Sleep Products Assn.'s Better Sleep Council, and also president of Therapedic Sleep Products, in response to Sealy's departure from ISPA:
"As chairman of the Better Sleep Council, I can speak for the group in saying that we will sorely miss Sealy's participation at our table. Through the years, Sealy's input has had an invaluable impact on the BSC and the direction we charted as an association. In fact, if not for the leadership of (former Sealy Chairman) Ron Jones, our retail publication, SleepSavvy, may not have ever made it to the market. Ron refused for that publication to be stalled in politics. He saw its value and helped to shepherd it to the finish line.
"However, after the initial hurt of Sealy's departure wears off, and we look in the mirror the next morning, we must ask ourselves, 'What did we do to fail them?' And next we must answer, 'What can we do to get them back?'
"It is incumbent upon us — ISPA — to continually show our value to our membership. We are not here to grow any member's business, but we do exist to grow the entire pie. And all our members, both big and small, need to recognize that.
"I would imagine that it was the very largest dairy farmers who benefited the most from the 'Got Milk?' campaign. In that regard, it would seem to me that the Sealys and Sertas of the world would stand to derive the greatest benefit from the work of ISPA and the BSC."
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