In year of major declines, Top 15 producers took hits
David Perry, Executive editor -- Furniture Today, June 15, 2009
When the bedding industry suffers through the worst year in its modern history you would expect to find major sales declines across the market. And that's the case, as our latest report on the Top 15 Bedding Producers illustrates.
That report, which you will find on pages 12 and 13 of this issue, documents a bedding landscape littered with sales downturns, from the very top of the list, where Sealy reports a 13.8% sales drop, to the bottom, where we estimate that No. 15 Lady Americana had an 11.1% sales drop last year. All told, we show that 12 of the Top 15 saw their sales decline last year.
That list of declines includes some of the biggest names in the industry. As we noted, sales leader Sealy was down in double digits, but that producer had plenty of company on the negative side of the sales ledger. No. 2 Simmons was down 8.4%, No. 4 Tempur-Pedic was down 12.6%, No. 5 Select Comfort was down 22.3%, No. 6 Spring Air was down 30.9%, No. 8 Comfort Solutions was down 9.5%, No. 9 Kingsdown was down 7.9%, No. 10 Therapedic was down 8.3%, No. 12 Englander was down 8.9%, No. 13 Restonic was down 12.8%, No. 14 Symbol was down 13.3%, and Lady A., as we noted earlier, was down by double digits.
Amid those declines are three that jump out at us. The specialty sleep powerhouses, Tempur-Pedic and Select Comfort, once set the growth pace in the industry, but now are both heading in the other direction. That's a startling turnaround. And the worst performance on the list, the 30.9% drop by Spring Air, reflected a brand in turmoil. Spring Air's sudden corporate shutdown last month saw the loss of most of its volume. As of this moment, Spring Air is not even close to being a Top 15 player. That is a stunning fall from prominence.
Only three producers managed to grow last year. By far the most notable story was that written by Serta, which has made several smart moves in the marketplace and reaped a 10.5% sales gain as its reward. That is an impressive performance for Bob Sherman and his team. The Counting Sheep are applauding.
Also growing last year was International Bedding, which supplied audited figures to us that documented its 16.7% sales gain, a substantial achievement. And the third winner was Corsicana, a low-profile, privately held company that is sneaking up on some people. We estimate that Corsicana had a 14.3% sales gain last year, pushing revenues to $96 million. This is a company that bears watching.
Most of the sales figures in our report are estimates, which we derive from an industry-wide survey of producers, suppliers and analysts. We wish more companies would supply audited or accountant-verified figures to us, but, for a variety of reasons, most don't.
Contact David Perry at dperry@reedbusiness.com
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