Vegas market shines spotlight on dynamic bedding category
David Perry, Executive Editor -- Furniture Today, August 22, 2005
Now that I've had a week to recover from the rigors of the first Las Vegas market, I hereby offer a list of Things We All Learned in Las Vegas.
u Vegas is a real bedding market. The bedding majors were thrilled with the traffic they enjoyed and the business they wrote. Several told me they did more business and saw more dealers in a day or two in Las Vegas than in an entire market in High Point. The bedding industry took the Las Vegas market very seriously, and was handsomely rewarded for doing so.
I don't see how the few bedding majors not represented in Vegas — Sealy and Kingsdown being the two most notable — can resist the momentum of Las Vegas. Therapedic, the only other bedding major not in Vegas, will be in the Standard space in January with its new Kathy Ireland line, which wasn't quite ready for the July market.
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Bedding producers can stand out at a "furniture" market. The major bedding showrooms were among the best in the World Market Center, in my humble opinion. Serta made an impressive showing with its million-dollar showroom investment. King Koil's Grid2-designed space drew rave reviews, and is an exciting vision of where mattress retailing may be headed. Simmons did many things well in its showroom, as did Tempur-Pedic. In the World Pavilions, the Connie Post-designed retail display for Restonic was compelling.
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Chinese-made bedding will find a place in the industry. Ed Scott's new venture, Stylution USA, was well received. The Chinese-made mattresses looked good and retailers loved the strong values, Scott told me. Other Chinese bedding lines, including the one offered by Excel, also did well. Spring Air said its dealers liked a Chinese-made bed it exhibited.
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The winds are blowing favorably for the airbed category. Serta entered the arena in Las Vegas, while Simmons displayed new airbeds by Boyd Specialty Sleep. Airbed major Comfortaire also was on the scene, as was newcomer Thurmo-Sleep. Look for more airbed introductions in the future.
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Specialty sleep is alive and well. Frankly, it was so alive that I had a hard time keeping up with it. The specialty sleep show used to be a freestanding event that commanded a couple of days of my undivided time, but here specialty sleep had to share the spotlight with bedding's big guns.
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Some bedding producers found clever ways to reward dealers. One offered a $100 gambling chip to retailers who visited its space; another provided a special Las Vegas gift to key retailers. (Sorry, I can reveal no other details of those special offers.) A third producer, Lady Americana, took a Mickey Mouse approach to market, showing a new line of beds in a Disney promotion.
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Finally, all of us bedding folks enjoyed the strong spotlight that illuminated our category in Las Vegas. It was a great start for this exciting new market venue.
Contact David Perry at dperry@reedbusiness.com
