Symbol serves niche
By David Perry -- Furniture Today, April 10, 2005
Richmond, Va. — An opportunistic approach to the bedding business is paying dividends for Symbol Mattress.
The major independent, based here, says it is serving a price niche largely vacated by larger producers.
"Over the last year and a half, the big guys have abandoned $699 and below with strong values," said Todd Nieting, vice president of sales and marketing. "That gives us an opportunity to step up one or two price points. We used to top out at about $599. Now we're at $599 and $699 and we are starting to mingle with the majors at $799 with a lot of value. They've given us the price points beneath that level."
Nieting says the heart of Symbol's business is from $399 to $799.
But don't think Symbol is just interested in rolling promotional bedding out of its seven plants.
"We would rather work with dealers and merchandise their floors than just sell them a truckload of bedding," Nieting said.
Symbol brought that merchandising push to the Tupelo Furniture Market in February. The producer brought three completely remerchandised lines to that show, flooring almost four dozen beds in its busy Tupelo showroom.
The new lineup includes the Contour Classic line of specialty sleep products, retailing from $799 to $1,999; the Comfortec line of foam-encased innerspring models, retailing from $449 to $1,799; and the Comfort Innovations line of single-sided innerspring models, retailing from $349 to $899.
While the producer specializes in bedding retailing at under $1,000, it hits price points as high as $2,499.
Symbol, which ships bedding from the East Coast all the way west to the Rocky Mountains, recently expanded its Orlando, Fla., operations. The producer now makes beds at a 160,000-square-foot facility that it owns.
It previously worked out of a 75,000-square-foot leased facility.
-
Specialty sleep products likely to stay hot
Dec 22, 2004
VIEW ALL GALLERIES
