Six Retail Giants honored at gala
By Furniture Today Staff -- Furniture Today, April 9, 2006
Henderson, Nev. — Furniture/Today honored six leading bedding retailers at its Bedding Conference, hailing them for sharing "a deep commitment to the bedding industry."
Each of the six — Select Comfort, Sleep Train, Better Bedding, Sit 'n Sleep, Ergo Customized Comfort and Long's Bedding & Interiors — was named a Retail Giant of Bedding at a gala awards dinner that was a highlight of the conference.
Furniture/Today Executive Editor David Perry hosted the dinner, presenting plaques to the winners.
"We are a better industry today thanks to the success stories written by these retailers," he said. "We hope these stories will inspire other retailers to do their part to raise the bar for our industry."
Larry McKay, president of Comfort Solutions by King Koil, introduced the awards program with an overview of the retailers' achievements.
"These companies are Retail Giants not only because of the amount of the business they do," he said, "but because of how they do business.... While their business models are different, these retailers share a passion for providing excellent service, selection and value. They also share a deep commitment to the bedding industry, a commitment that is shared by many exceptional bedding retailers."
Comfort Solutions was the sponsor of the awards dinner.
Giants were named in three categories: large (21 or more stores), medium (11–20 stores) and small (10 or fewer stores).
The large store honorees were Select Comfort, the Minneapolis-based airbed retailer that is the largest U.S. bedding retailer with 400 company-owned stores, and Sleep Train, the West Coast-based sleep shop chain with 126 stores. Select Comfort is headed by Bill McLaughlin, chairman and CEO. Accepting the award for the company were Doug Collier and Keith Spurgeon, members of the senior executive team.
Sleep Train's top executive is Dale Carlsen.
Honorees in the medium store category were Better Bedding of East Hartford, Conn., and Sit 'n Sleep of Gardena, Calif. Better Bedding, which operates 19 stores, is headed by brothers John and Tom Wholley. Fifteen-store Sit 'n Sleep is run by partners Larry Miller and Nelson Bercier. Miller and company executive Howard Cooper accepted the award.
Small store honorees were Ergo Customized Comfort of Irvine, Calif., and Long's Bedding & Interiors of New York. Michael Nermon is president of Ergo, which has two stores. Bob Long is president of Long's Bedding, which has a single store. He and his wife, Judie, accepted the award.
Video tributes to each of the six retailers were shown at the awards dinner.
The Retail Giants were selected from more than two dozen nominations submitted to Furniture/Today. Furniture/Today and the Home Furnishings International Assn., co-sponsors of the Bedding Conference, jointly selected the winners.
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Six Retail Giants honored at gala
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