United looks past foam
Designs Poly Plush as alternative
By Gary Evans -- Furniture Today, January 15, 2006
Okolona, Miss. — Upholstery maker United Furniture Inds. believes the timing couldn't be better for a new cushioning product it has developed.
The company has developed and has a copyright pending for Poly Plush, a cushion material that combines fibers and poly foam into a product that United President Larry George said has the look and feel of down, at a lower cost.
In the making for 18 months, Poly Plush is coming into use just as foam prices, driven upward by a shortage of chemicals, have been at an all-time high and supplies have been unstable.
The new material is blown into a cushion like down. George said the company developed the product so it could make a better seat. United had expected it would have to "pay a little more" for Poly Plush than for foam alone, but that turned out not to be the case.
"When the (foam price) increases went in, at that point in time it turned out to be cheaper. That was one reason we didn't have to have a surcharge or price increase at the October market," he said.
He said the foam price hikes — some suppliers raising prices by 60% — "put everything in fast motion, in overdrive. We were close enough at the time and had this product almost perfected. We did a little tweaking and sent it off to Mississippi State to be tested. It performed and held up a lot greater than the foam we were using at the time — and we were already giving a lifetime warranty on our seating."
Poly Plush will be used across the company's price points and will be in all products shown at the Las Vegas Market, Jan. 30–Feb. 3.
When George became United's president five years ago, the company surveyed sales representatives and retailers to determine the challenges it needed to overcome. One was inconsistency with the feel of seating. The company was using 1.8 density foam, but one cushion in a sofa could sit harder than the next.
A year later, George hired John Cox as vice president of manufacturing and charged him with developing a better cushion. The company tried reflex foam and high-density foam, neither of which solved the problem of inconsistency.
"With foam, you're always going to get a three- or four-pound variance with your seating standard," George said. "In recliners and motion, if you get a three- or four-pound variance, that can be a major issue."
The tests at Mississippi State confirmed the new product's consistency and staying power. "If you had 32 pounds compression, that is what you're going to have tomorrow and the next day and the next day," said George.
In addition, testing indicated that the cushions could take use. They withstood a pressure test equivalent to sitting on a sofa three times a day for 20 years.
The company also took the improved cushion to retail for a consumer tush test. At one store, United executives stationed two of their sofas — one using the poly fiber combination and the other using the old foam cushioning — and asked shoppers to state their preference. They gave the testers $5 to $10 for their time. Of well over 100 participants, 62% preferred the Poly Plush, 30% preferred the old and 8% said it didn't matter.
"We were excited about the results," said Doug Hanby, the company's chief financial officer. "Here we had a product that we can use that gives us more consistency, it holds up better than the old seating, and, by the way, the customer actually likes it better."
The company also did an informal test in its High Point showroom in October, with only a few key executives aware that some sofas had the new mix.
"A lot of people would walk in and not realize they were sitting on a new product. They say, 'Oh, I love the way this sits.' I'd say, try that one (sofa) over there, and they'd say they didn't like the way it sat," said George.
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