Spring Air International adds six licensees

Will give revived company national scope

David Perry -- Furniture Today, July 14, 2009

BOSTON — Spring Air International, the new group relaunching the Spring Air brand nationwide, now has coast-to-coast coverage with the addition of six new U.S. licensees.

The company, based here, said the six new licensees represent seven manufacturing facilities in California, Utah, North Dakota, Iowa, Pennsylvania and Texas. They give Spring Air International 13 domestic factories for national bedding distribution, the company said.

"We are very pleased that these experienced producers are now part of Spring Air International," said Rick Robinson, president. "Every manufacturer has a record of sustained success in the mattress business."

The new licensees include:

• Pleasant Mattress, a longtime independent bedding producer in Fresno, Calif. It will represent northern California for Spring Air International. Founded in 1959, Pleasant Mattress is owned and operated by Herb Morgenstern, president.

• Medi-Pedic Bedding in Commerce, Calif. Owned by Gereis Sidaros, president, the company will represent Spring Air in southern California and Arizona. Medi-Pedic also holds a license with Englander.

• Upper Midwest Sleep Products, a family-owned business with mattress factories in Grand Forks, N.D., and Toledo, Iowa. Owned and operated by Richard Stevens, whose family began making mattresses in the 1920s, the company has the licensing rights for Spring Air products in its two home states as well as in Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, South Dakota and Wisconsin. It also holds a license to produce Restonic-brand mattresses.

• Pennsylvania Bedding, which operates an 87,000-square-foot factory in Old Forge, Pa., and was founded in 1906. The company, which said it had held a license to market Comfort Solutions products for many years, will serve Spring Air customers in Pennsylvania Delaware, the District of Columbia, Maryland, New Jersey and New York.

• Winco Bedding, headed by CEO Carroll Moran, who plans to open a Spring Air Texas manufacturing facility in the Carrollton, Texas, area . Winco has the licensing rights for Spring Air in Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Arkansas and parts of Louisiana. Moran also owns Corsicana Bedding of Texas, a seven-plant operation founded in 1971 that is one of the largest independent bedding producers in the country. Winco also is a Therapedic licensee.

• Spring Air-Mountain States in Salt Lake City. Once a Spring Air Co.-owned plant, the facility ceased operations in May as the former corporate entity closed, but has since reopened. The new entity is headed by Dale Schmutz, who was chief financial officer of the former business. It will serve customers in Utah, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada and Wyoming.

The new licensees join a core of former Spring Air licensees who remained in business in May after the nine former corporate-owned plants closed. Those three independent licensees are in Cameron, S.C., Grand Rapids, Mich., and Greensboro, N.C.

Also part of the new Spring Air International are former company-owned facilities that have reopened in Boston, Atlanta and Columbus, Ohio.

That distribution network, now bolstered by the new licensees, "gives us the reach and presence to serve retailers as a national company once again," Robinson said. "It's also a testament to the perceived strength of the Spring Air brand itself, which many producers clearly demonstrated by their desire to license it for manufacture and sale in their local markets."

Spring Air International said it has leased the former Spring Air Co. company showroom in Las Vegas in World Market Center B-1126, and will make a major introduction of new products at the Sept. 14-17 market.