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Comfor-Pedic boosts safety sales efforts

By David Perry -- Furniture Today, February 6, 2005

Fife, Wash. — Comfor-Pedic, which manufactures visco-elastic bedding in China, is expanding its sales team and ratcheting up its marketing programs as it seeks a larger share of the rapidly growing visco market.

The company, based here, has added a former Tempur-Pedic sales representative, Jerry Michaels, to its sales team as vice president, retail channel.

Michaels brings "a lifetime of sales experience on both the retail and wholesale levels," said Comfor-Pedic President Jack Squires. "His expertise in visco bedding as well as his character and integrity make him the perfect fit in our organization."

Comfor-Pedic is emphasizing safety messages as it markets its new open-flame-protected visco bedding nationwide, well ahead of a national fire-safety standard.

Since last summer, every mattress it has produced has met the flammability standards that took effect Jan. 1 in California, the company said.

"Comfor-Pedic rejects the notion that only Californians deserve to sleep safely," Squires said. "We believe that the TB 603 law (the California fire-resistant standard) is a tremendous step in consumer protection, so we have mandated our Flame Shield technology on all of our beds, regardless where they are being shipped. We couldn't sleep at night knowing that a child sleeping on a Comfor-Pedic bed is not as safe as she could be just because she doesn't live in California."

Scott Smalling, Comfor-Pedic's CEO, said, "The increased safety to consumers provided by this industry-changing law far outweighs the costs we have incurred."

The company's Flame Shield FR system uses a supple, stretchable fabric membrane that encases the foam mattress core. There are no topical or chemical treatments applied that will wear off, wash out or introduce chemicals from the mattress surface into the environment, the company said.

Also, the Flame Shield material "does not interfere with the natural mechanics of the visco-elastic foam layer and it eliminates any hammocking issues generally associated with other fire-blocking materials," the company said.

Comfor-Pedic said its visco bedding is of superior quality and has unique features and benefits, among them a patented edge support system. And it said its point-of-purchase materials are among the best in the industry.

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Comfor-Pedic expands sales team

Jan 26, 2005

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