Knickerbocker developing bed supports into stand-alone category
By David Perry -- Furniture Today, April 14, 2005
At the Market — Bedding supports, once little more than an afterthought on retail sales floors, are emerging as a category in their own right.
"The application of engineering and design has reinvented an industry and bed support is now a true product category," declared Richard Polevoy, CEO of Knickerbocker Bed Co. "It's not just about one product. Retailers are beginning to recognize where we are going with this category. We have demonstrated the add-on dollars this category creates for them."
Knickerbocker is developing stylish retail kiosks to show the company's growing line of products. Such a display would have been unthinkable just a few years ago, when most retailers saw bed frames as nothing more than a commodity.
But several factors have come together to put new strength in the bed support arena, Polevoy said. For starters, the bedding industry continues to favor heavy, beefy mattresses, which require superior support. If a bed frame failure damages those mattresses, which carry higher and higher prices, consumers can face an expensive problem.
At the same time, as Asian bedroom furniture makers strive to keep prices down, the wood and steel slats they put in their beds are often flimsy. In many cases, Polevoy said, such beds can't support heavy mattresses.
"The imports have changed the emphasis of the buying decision to be based more on visual presentation and not on the performance of the furniture," he said. "Research has shown that the key to a good night's sleep clearly revolves around comfort and support. It is imperative to provide a structurally sound support system that is designed to work in concert with today's changing bedding preferences."
Knickerbocker says that more than 30% of mattress and boxspring complaints received by retailers and manufacturers can be attributed to boxsprings sagging from improper support.
To deal with such a performance gap, the supplier is expanding its bed support line.
Knickerbocker's newest product, the Bedbeam system, joins its premium Eventide and Bedbridge products. Bedbridge is a steel support system designed to replace wood slats, while Eventide uses composite materials to provide a new type of bed frame, one that rests on omni-directional casters.
The company has seven patents, with others pending.
"The consumer doesn't remember how much the bed frame cost," Polevoy said. "They only know how they feel when they wake up in the morning after a good night's sleep."
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