Restonic focuses on safety
By David Perry -- Furniture Today, January 22, 2007
Palatine, Ill. — Restonic, a leader in promoting the importance of open-flame protection in mattresses, is making safety part of its mission.
Restonic was the first national bedding producer to obtain certification from Underwriters Laboratories that its beds met the tough new flammability standard that went into effect in California last year, company officials say. Restonic was the only bedding producer to achieve UL certification for more than a year, they add.
"We were in front of the curve on flammability," said Donna Amatulli Favia, Restonic's vice president of sales and marketing. "We see UL as a way for us to demonstrate to the industry our commitment to the FR issue."
The UL program includes audits of Restonic factories to make sure they adhere to the standards necessary to maintain FR compliance.
"UL is an area of comfort we can offer to our retailers," Favia said. "We are not just self-certifying. We are using a third party. We are going well above and beyond what is required on flammability."
The producer will introduce its national FR lines, designed to meet the new federal FR standard, at the Las Vegas Market Jan. 29–Feb. 2.
Restonic is using the Lilly Management Group as it develops its national FR line.
The UL initiative is just one that Restonic is using to create more consumer awareness of its products. Another is promoting the Best Buy designation the Restonic ComfortCare line has received from Consumers Digest magazine six times. Consumers Digest says the designation means the line offers "outstanding value for today's consumer."
The ComfortCare Imperial, introduced this year and retailing from $999 to $1,099 with a choice of comfort, has the "Best Buy" label woven into its ticking. The designation also is touted in customized pillow shams available to Restonic retailers. New point-of-purchase and sales training materials also back the ComfortCare Imperial.
Restonic says ComfortCare is the only six-time Best Buy winner in the bedding industry.
The models feature Restonic's proprietary "Marvelous Middle" construction, offering extra support in the center third of the mattress. Restonic has been touting that story since 1938, but according to Favia, isn't just relying on its rich heritage in its product development.
She noted that Restonic was an early entrant into the visco-elastic foam marketplace in 2002. Its HealthRest Memory Foam Collection, now in its second generation, offers retails from $999 to $2,299. The three national models in that program can be customized by Restonic licensees in up to eight configurations.
"That allows Restonic to help its retailers differentiate their lines from the competition," said Favia.
Restonic entered the airbed market with its HealthRest Air Bed Collection in January of 2004. The two national models in that program retail from $1,999 to $2,599.
And Restonic's HealthRest Latex Collection, introduced in July 2005, features four national models at retails ranging from $1,999 to $2,899.
