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Plenty of visco on view at High Point market

David Perry, Executive Editor -- Furniture Today, April 10, 2005

Welcome, dear bedding buyers, to High Point, which proudly calls itself The Furniture Capital of the World. (And that's accurate.)

In our ongoing effort to help you get more out of market, we humbly offer this bit of free advice: Thought about adding any more visco-elastic mattresses to your floors?

If your answer is no, stop reading right now, pack your bags and head for home. You have flunked this test of Merchandising 101.

OK, that might be a bit harsh, but it's no exaggeration to say that visco-elastic beds are sprouting up at this market like mushrooms in the woods after a rainstorm.

You can find visco-core and visco-topper mattresses in virtually every bedding showroom in High Point, a number that is somewhere in the two dozen range. Many of those bedding producers are showing new visco beds this market. Those who aren't probably will tell you they've got more visco beds on the way.

There are two visco introductions you simply can't miss. One is Sealy's long-awaited entry into the visco category. When the world's largest bedding producer enters a category, expect something to happen.

You also should see a new visco mattress being unveiled by Tempur-Pedic, the leader in the category. The success story written by that producer is nothing short of amazing. Competitors continue to knock their products even as they roll out visco lines of their own, but the Tempur-Pedic phenomenon shows no signs of losing momentum.

The visco boom is fueling growth in the specialty sleep category, which is well represented in High Point. Boyd Specialty Sleep, Natura, Comfortaire and Strobel are worth a visit. Gold Bond's futons are well done, and that producer also has interesting innerspring models.

What else should you look at in High Point?

Chinese-made mattresses will be featured in several showrooms. There's a palpable buzz about China in the bedding industry these days. See for yourself.

High Point's bedding lineup this market features five Top 12 players: Sealy, Tempur-Pedic, Therapedic, Englander and Kingsdown. Serta has exited High Point. Simmons is showing specialty sleep lines at Boyd, but doesn't have an innerspring presence.

Carolina Mattress Guild is talking about the importance of color (yes, color!) on bedding floors, Bemco has new lines, High Point-based companies Thurmo-Pudic USA and Thurmo-Sleep USA are on the move, and Hypnos has something exciting at the Arthur Brett & Sons showroom at 330 North Hamilton.

And Spanish bedding producer Garme USA is entering the U.S. market.

I hope you have a great market!

Contact David Perry at dperry@reedbusiness.com

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Plenty of visco on view at High Point market

Apr 12, 2005

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