Jamison Bedding sends mattresses to China
Targets growing hospitality, retail markets
David Perry -- Furniture Today, September 23, 2009
FRANKLIN, Tenn. — Jamison Bedding, defying conventional industry thinking, has launched an export program that could put a head of state on one of its sleep sets in China.
The company, based here, has a long history of serving the U.S. hospitality market and is a 40-year supplier to Marriott, but is now going to greater lengths - and distances - to serve the global hospitality market.
"Uncommon results require uncommon effort," said Frank Gorrell III, Jamison's president. "The explosive growth China is now experiencing, coupled with projections for the country's increasing tourism and consumerism, provides tremendous opportunities to grow our business overseas in both the contract and residential segments."
Jamison has launched a mattress export program in partnership with Jiang Su Sunshine Textiles Co., a diversified Chinese distributor and retailer based in the coastal province of Jiang Su. The partnership will enable Jamison and Sunshine Textiles to provide Jamison-brand sleep products to China's hospitality and retail industries.
Mattress exports are not common, as shipping costs add up and sleep sets are bulky items to ship. But targeted programs, like the one Jamison is launching, can achieve success, bedding observers say.
The export program doesn't signify a fundamental business shift for Jamison, a 126-year-old producer with factories in Gallatin, Tenn., and Albany, Ga. "Our U.S. customers will always be our first priority, but as a producer we also need to be open to new business opportunities," Gorrell said.
Jamison serves more than 400 U.S. retailers in 13 states in the Southeast and also supplies major hospitality chains including Intercontinental, Choice, Best Western, LaQuinta and Marriott.
Jye-Min Sung, brand manager of Sunshine Textiles, is meeting with Jamison officials in the United States this week and also will visit B.F. Meyers Furniture, a longtime Jamison retailer based in Goodlettsville, Tenn.
Jamison's export program is spearheaded by Adrian Jones, vice president of hospitality sales. Sunshine will initially market Jamison mattresses to China's growing hotel and resort trade, and ultimately plans to sell Jamison products in the eight Sunshine retail locations across China.
Jones said Jamison is exporting five of the company's best-selling luxury beds in its Hospitality Collection, plus a top-of-the-line Diplomat model in its retail Crest Collection. The Diplomat model, which targets presidential suite-level rooms, uses encased coils, foam encasement, Talalay latex layers and cashmere.
The other models are innerspring and all-foam designs with six- and eight-inch cores. The beds feature layers of high density foams, damask covers and the company's exclusive poplar hardwood grid-top base.
"This program reflects a strategic decision to take the brand to an international stage with an established, professional overseas partner," Jones said. "Sunshine Textiles was attracted to our 126-year heritage of making unique, hand-crafted products, as well as our successful 40-year history with Marriott. The company also wants to target more affluent Chinese who are attracted to premium goods from America."
Added Sunshine brand manager Jye-Min Sung: "Sunshine management is honored to have Jamison Bedding as a partner. Together we'll bring a high quality sleep experience to Asia, beginning with China, the world's fastest-growing economy."
Jamison made its first shipment to Sunshine last month.
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