New metal beds find receptive audience
By Thomas Russell -- Furniture Today, October 19, 2006
At The Market — Metal bed vendors played up their strengths this market in hopes of rejuvenating interest in the category, and buyers responded particularly well to products offering a combination of style and value.
Manufacturer Wesley Allen, for example, touted its core abilities as a high-end, custom-order shop, launching six new textured finishes, and two new leather and three new fabric options for upholstered headboards and footboards.
The new offerings have been well-received by buyers, said CEO Maier Rosenberg.
In total, the company came out with nine new beds in its Wesley Allen line, and one new model in its high-end Amanda Sutton line. Among the most popular models this market in the Wesley Allen line was Fontana, a transitional/contemporary bed with an upholstered headboard and footboard that retails at $2,200 in king size.
Corsican, another high-end manufacturer, also had good response to two new beds, including a model with a lattice-shaped design on the headboard and footboard that retails for $3,200. The other bed is a traditional, French-inspired model with a black-and-white rubbed finish and rust accents. It retails at $2,999.
Fashion Bed Group said it got good reaction to a group of five new higher-end beds in its Regal collection that retail between $599 and $699. These are largely traditional-style models with a combination of textured and high-gloss finishes.
The company also received positive reaction to several new transitional/contemporary wood beds and daybeds in its Urban Options collection. These models retail from $199 for a platform bed to $699 for a model with leather on the headboard and footboard. Daybed retails range from $599 for an all-wood model to $699 for a wood and leather version.
Largo International ventured down a different path this market with a $399 antique reproduction metal bed called Angelina, modeled after a bed the company saw in the movie "Mr. and Mrs. Smith," starring Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt.
Available in a mottled, Old World, multi-step finish, the bed's triple-arch headboard and footboard, and plates with floral castings, were a hit with retailers here, Largo officials said.
Two other beds, including a traditional-style bed called Florette and another traditional bed named Triad, also got good attention from retailers, according to the company. These models retail between $249 and $299 and, like the Angelina, are expected to hit sales floors by late February or early March.
"The metal bed category is doing well," said Ray Reese, Largo's vice president of sales, citing the strong commitments received on this market's new beds. "If you don't have any glitz to add to it, it becomes a pretty boring category. That's what we've been doing these past three markets."
Amisco, meanwhile, introduced three beds this market. Two of them — Miles, a Shaker-style bed that retails at $399, and Clayton, a $469 contemporary model with rectangular-shaped tubing and a frosted glass shelf on the headboard—got the strongest reactions from dealers, the Canadian-based company reported.
Like other models in Amisco's line, the new items are available in 12 different finishes, which is part of the company's custom approach to marketing metal beds.
"Our customers want a variety of looks," said Nolan Mitch-ell, the company's U.S. sales manager.
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Metal bed makers focus on style, value
Nov 12, 2006
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