Therapedic will plant flag 'in the sands of High Point'
David Perry, Executive Editor -- Furniture Today, June 27, 2005
I've been writing a lot lately about bedding companies heading to Las Vegas. As you may recall, eight of the Top 10 conventional bedding producers will be showing at the inaugural market there in late July. That's a bedding gathering the likes of which we have not seen at a market in many years.
But, as they say in journalism school, there are two sides to every story. And so this week we present the High Point side of the bedding story, as articulated by Gerry Borreggine, president of Therapedic.
"Our company will make a significant investment in High Point," Borreggine told me the other day during a trip to High Point. "We will have two showrooms in High Point: a satellite showroom, and a Kathy Ireland showroom."
Therapedic recently signed on as a Kathy Ireland licensee, and will show its bedding lines with other Kathy Ireland-licensed products in Standard's showroom in the International Home Furnishings Center. Therapedic will exhibit its Kathy Ireland bedding lines there this fall, Borreggine said, and will keep its outlying showroom at the N.C. Home Furnishings Center just off Green Drive.
"We are going to stake our flag in the sands of High Point," Borreggine said. "We think it is an important market. It is the epicenter. I don't think that will change regardless of the success or failure of Las Vegas. High Point is always and forever the industry's No. 1 market. Will there be challenges? Yes. But I don't look at Las Vegas as a challenge to High Point. I think we will magnify the industry's message by having a sister market. I look at Las Vegas as a complement to High Point. Everybody looks at High Point vs. Las Vegas as a win-lose situation. Whatever happens in Las Vegas won't change the fact that High Point is the world capital of home furnishings."
While you are contemplating those strong statements, here are a couple of things to keep in mind. Borreggine has been coming to High Point since 1989, following in the footsteps of his father, Frank, a bedding buyer who started his own High Point pilgrimages in 1965. "I have a sentimental love affair with High Point," the younger Borreggine admitted. "As my father's son, I'm pulling for High Point."
He does think High Point needs to make some improvements: "High Point definitely needs to make adjustments in how it services its clientele. There is definitely room for improvement. Las Vegas may jostle High Point to better service and respect the clientele that makes High Point the furniture capital."
Borreggine will be in Las Vegas this summer. Therapedic will be showing with Standard at the World Market Center. "I think Las Vegas will sustain itself," he said. "It won't be at the expense of High Point, but it will grow shoulder to shoulder with High Point."
That's one man's view, of course. But I think it adds to the current dialog on the changing market scene.
Contact David Perry at dperry@reedbusiness.com
