Sealy to make S&F line fire-resistant
By David Perry -- Furniture Today, October 16, 2005
Archdale, N.C. — Sealy said the new high-end Stearns & Foster bedding it is introducing this week incorporates open-flame fire-resistant materials throughout the line.
The announcement gives the industry's move toward FR bedding a significant boost. Stearns & Foster, with bedding shipments last year estimated at $218 million, is the industry's fifth-largest conventional bedding brand.
And it indicates that Sealy is in a position to extend FR protection to its other lines, including its flagship Posturepedic line, when it rolls out more new products next year.
"The launch of Sealy's entire Stearns & Foster line with FR-compliant materials underscores Sealy's continued commitment to quality, innovation and consumer safety," said Sealy CEO Dave McIlquham. "Sealy's proactive move reflects our goal to invest in the development, testing and commercialization of FR solutions and our desire to meet or exceed federal, state and industry standards."
The new S&F line, which retails from $1,199 to $4,999, incorporates Sealy's FlameGuard FR system, a fiber-based, non-toxic FR solution that Sealy has been using to meet California's stringent new open-flame standard, which went on the books at the beginning of this year.
Sealy has been making FR-resistant bedding in all of its U.S. plants for the past year to meet the demands of national customers who request the products.
The FR solution Sealy uses in California is incorporated into the border and quilt of the mattress and in the border of the box spring.
Sealy officials said they will not patent their FR solution, asserting that it can become a solution of benefit to the entire bedding industry.
They also said that enough FR materials are now available to meet the company's expanding needs for those materials.
The new FR S&F line is well in advance of a federal standard on mattress flammability. Mike Murray, Sealy's vice president and legal counsel, who has played a key role in the issue in recent years, said he expects a federal FR mattress standard will take effect in the first quarter of 2007.
The S&F move signals that Sealy is moving closer to introducing fire-resistant materials in some of its other bedding lines.
Sealy Posturepedic's new latex core line, SpringFree, will incorporate FR materials with the launch of new products this week. The Posturepedic TrueForm line of visco-core mattresses will be fire-resistant by the end of this year.
Sealy officials said that those new products, like the new S&F line, are able to provide FR protection while still presenting compelling values in the marketplace.
The producer has been making extensive use of its new $1 million-plus Research and Development Test Center at Sealy headquarters here to develop and test its FR solutions. Sealy burned more than 2,000 beds at a private test lab before beginning to conduct mattress burns at its R&D facility last December.
Sealy has been burning about 10 beds a day at the facility, testing its beds, ensuring the quality of FR beds produced at its plants, evaluating a variety of FR materials and ways to incorporate those materials into mattresses, and testing competitors' products.
"We are very proud of our leadership in FR, from our participation in the drafting of federal and state legislation and regulations to the engineering and creation of FR supply chains, systems and products in the bedding industry," McIlquham said.
The FlameGuard logo will be placed on the corner streamers of the new S&F beds. The FR protection "is an added feature," said Philip Dobbs, senior vice president of marketing for Sealy. "We are focusing on what consumers want, which is an exceptional night's sleep."
Sealy officials said the addition of FR materials does not affect the comfort of their bedding products.
-
Sealy to make S&F line fire-resistant
Oct 17, 2005
Featured Company
-
Brandwise Inc.
Brandwise serves a model - not just an industry - by integrating, automating, and optimizing the entire sales channel, from wholesale Suppliers to their Reps and the Retailers they service. In short, our software helps Reps and Suppliers sell more and create... more
VIEW ALL GALLERIES
