Simmons aims to give retailers display ideas
By David Perry -- Furniture Today, July 24, 2005
Las Vegas — The 8,000-square-foot space that Simmons occupies in the World Market Center here is its largest presentation at any U.S. market and is designed to show the company's bedding lines to their best advantage.
The aim is to create an appealing environment that will give retailers ideas they can use in their stores, according to Simmons officials.
"This is a very fun space to visit," said Kevin Damewood, senior vice president of sales and marketing. "We have water walls in the lobby, a dramatic entrance and beautiful wood paneling. The space offers a really great environment for our customers."
Bedding, of course, receives star billing, with key concepts behind the bedding lines clearly communicated. "There are elements of our showroom we would love for our dealers to mimic," he said. "We hope they take elements of the environment and the product offering and display their products in that way."
The food also is topnotch, Damewood noted. Renowned chef Gustav Mauler, owner of Gustav Mauler's Tobaccos & Lounge in the JW Marriott Las Vegas Hotel, is providing catering.
The bedding floor in the showroom occupies about 5,000 square feet, about 1,000 more square feet than Simmons used in its showrooms in San Francisco and at the Grandover Resort in Greensboro, N.C., where it makes product introductions during the April and October High Point markets.
Damewood said Simmons is displaying a variety of new products here, including new HealthSmart Beautyrest models and promotional Beautyrest and Back-Care numbers.
He said Simmons signed on early as a Las Vegas exhibitor because the company embraced the World Market Center's vision of a first-class market facility in a city with bountiful accommodations, amenities and restaurants.
"We have always had a successful West Coast market," Damewood said. "Now we have the opportunity to do it in a bigger market with attendance from not only the West Coast, but also from the Midwest and the Southwest."
He described the WMC as "brand new and first class."
"It opens up a different experience for our customers," he said. "The San Francisco market seemed to deteriorate. In Las Vegas we have a better opportunity to treat our customers well."
Damewood said Simmons plans to continue to make major product launches at the Grandover Resort during High Point markets. The company's presence at Grandover enables it to show its new products "efficiently and productively, with panache," he said.
"We recognize High Point as the main market," Damewood said. "But we won't make light of Las Vegas. They have a good plan for growth."
Will Las Vegas become the national bedding market? Damewood said he doesn't know, but noted the inaugural Vegas event features a strong lineup of bedding producers.
Simmons is showing in space 525 of the WMC.
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