Metal bed makers focus on style, value
By Thomas Russell -- Furniture Today, October 29, 2006
High Point — Metal bed vendors played up their strengths this market in hopes of rejuvenating interest in the category, and buyers responded particularly to product offering both style and value.
Manufacturer Wesley Allen, for example, touted its core abilities as a high-end, custom-order shop, launching six textured finishes, and two leather and three fabric options for upholstered headboards and footboards.
The new offerings were 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 in the Wesley Allen line was Fontana, a transitional/contemporary bed with an upholstered headboard and footboard at $2,200 retail in king size.
Other popular models included the Revere, a traditional bed that retails for $1,299, and the Lindau, a canopy bed with leather headboard available in three colored leathers, at $2,299 retail in queen.
The company said it was merging its lower-priced Iron Beds of America line into its medium to upper-middle Wesley Allen line. Seven of 12 IBA beds will be marketed as Wesley Allen models, and the other five will be discontinued. The move allows dealers to carry the Wesley Allen line at lower introductory price points, Rosenberg said.
Corsican, another high-end manufacturer, had good response to two new beds, including a model with a lattice-shaped design on the headboard and footboard at $3,200 retail. The other bed, a traditional, French-inspired model with a black-and-white rubbed finish and rust accents, 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. They are mostly traditional 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, which retail from $199 to $699.
Largo International came to market with a $399 antique reproduction metal bed called Angelina, modeled after a bed in the movie "Mr. and Mrs. Smith," starring Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt. Available in a mottled, Old World, multi-step finish, the bed, with triple-arch headboard and footboard and plates with floral castings, was a hit with retailers, officials said.
Two other traditional beds, called Florette and Triad, also were well received, Largo officials said. They retail between $249 and $299 and, like the Angelina, are expected to hit retail floors by late February or early March.
"The metal bed category is doing well," said Ray Reese, Largo's vice president of sales, citing strong market commitments. "(But) if you don't have any glitz to add to it, it becomes a pretty boring category."
Amisco, meanwhile, introduced three beds. 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 finishes.
"Our customers want a variety of looks," said Nolan Mitchell, U.S. sales manager.
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New metal beds find receptive audience
Nov 5, 2006
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