Excel brings value-priced mattresses to U.S. market
By David Perry -- Furniture Today, February 6, 2005
Edison, N.J. — Excel Bedding's China adventure started more than two years ago, when the regional bedding producer based here said it would bring value-priced mattresses to the U.S. market.
Vice President Ira Leibowitz began traveling to China and visiting bedding factories. After surveying the scene, he began working with one of China's largest bedding producers, bringing samples of Chinese-made beds to the United States.
After tweaking the lineup and making the beds softer and more comfortable, as demanded by the U.S. market, Excel began bringing in containers on a regular basis in summer 2003.
Next, the producer publicly identified its Chinese partner, the Xilinmen Group of Shaoxing, China.
Last fall, at the High Point market, Excel took the next step in its evolving import strategy. Excel and Xilinmen shared a space in Plaza Suites, where mattresses with the Xilinmen label were on display. And top executives of Xilinmen, including Chairman Ayu Chen, were at market to meet with U.S. retailers.
With that showing, Chinese-made mattresses entered the mainstream of the U.S. market, exhibited openly by U.S. and Chinese bedding makers.
That was another step in Excel's ongoing education process, Leibowitz said.
"There are some retailers — the number is decreasing monthly, hopefully — who are uncomfortable putting in the planning time necessary to make an imported bedding line work," he said. "We are working on developing U.S. distribution facilities that will make ordering our bedding as easy as ordering domestically produced bedding lines."
Excel is shipping over a dozen different mattress styles to the United States. The sets retail from $499 to $1,299. Two styles of upholstered solid-wood platform bases also are being imported, but box springs are being made in the United States.
The beds are being marketed under the Excel brand. Private-label programs also are offered.
Excel offers a number of high-coil-count innerspring units in its lines, most of which it says are still unavailable in this country. Those units provide superior contouring characteristics, and the higher coil heights require less filling materials, thereby making body impressions less likely, Leibowitz said.
He said the values Excel is offering are substantial, ranging from 25% to 50% better than for comparable U.S.-made bedding.
Xilinmen can offer those values, Leibowitz said, because it is a vertically integrated ISO 9001 factory that makes its own innersprings and produces its own foam and ticking. The factory has been producing about 500,000 pieces of bedding annually, and will soon boost its capacity to more than 1 million pieces annually.
"The factory complex is very modern, with the latest European and American-made machinery and equipment," he said. "In addition, Xilinmen management maintains very high standards of quality control. Excel has an office near the factory complex staffed by its own bedding experts fluent in English and Chinese. Our staff coordinates purchase orders with on-site management, monitors work in progress and oversees the loading of containers. Having my own staff is an integral part of managing our business. We communicate daily and I travel to China very often."
Leibowitz said the line has been well received by a number of U.S. retailers, including Top 100 furniture stores. He recently identified Top 100 dealer C.S. Wo of Hawaii as an Excel customer.
Excel and C.S. Wo developed the C.S. Wo Signature Series Island Dreams line for Wo's SlumberWorld and Sleepland U.S.A. bedding stores. The mattresses are embroidered with Hawaiian names. The beds are foam encased, with individually wrapped innersprings.
"We are extremely fortunate to be working with C.S. Wo," Leibowitz said. "Brian Sarchet and Mike Wo have looked to us to create value at certain price points, and the program has been quite successful."
While Xilinmen currently is shipping mattresses to the United States from its factory in Shaoxing, it's considering building a U.S. bedding plant. Leibowitz said a Xilinmen factory here would enable Excel to increase its U.S. distribution and could lead to lower prices.
While acknowledging that other Chinese bedding producers may enter the U.S. market, Leibowitz said Excel will remain ahead of the pack.
"We are always trying to come up with new bedding designs and new materials," he said. One example of that is a down-cushioned removable quilt slated for a $1,299 bed.
Excel is entering its second year as Xilinmen's exclusive U.S. sales agent. The company plans to quadruple the size of its High Point space this April with a new showroom in the International Home Furnishings Center.
"Our focus remains on pricing," Leibowitz said. "That includes not only finished product, but ocean freight and inland trucking as well. We recently became an approved participant of C-TPAT (Customs Trade Partnership Against Terrorism), allowing our containers to clear customs as quickly as possible and virtually eliminating costly and time-consuming inspections."
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Excel's Chinese venture moves forward
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Chinese mfr. eyes U.S.
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