Innovator Jack Cohen retires from Sealy
By David Perry -- Furniture Today, January 7, 2007
Naperville, Ill. — He wanted to be a newspaper reporter but the low salaries were a turnoff, so Jack Cohen went into the furniture business instead.
More than four decades later, most of them spent in the bedding industry, Cohen has wrapped up a career that gave him a front-row seat for several key moments in mattress marketing.
He was involved with the first national TV advertising campaign at Sealy, brought some key executives like Larry McKay into the wholesale side of the business, and pushed for higher prices for full-sized bedding.
He was recruited to Sealy by Howard Haas in 1966 and worked there with Haas and another bedding legend, Roy Unger. Later he went to work for Ernie Wuliger, and then became vice president of sales at Sealy for the Sears account, a position he held for the last 16 years.
Cohen, 65, retired from Sealy at the end of last year.
"I may pursue other interests outside the bedding industry," he said, "but I have bedding in my blood."
He joined the furniture industry in 1964 at the National Retail Furniture Assn., which later became the National Home Furnishings Assn. He participated in the first all-industry conference for the furniture industry, held in San Francisco.
He met Haas in 1965 and joined Sealy the next year. As assistant advertising manager at Sealy from 1966 to 1970, he helped put Sealy on the advertising map. In 1967, Sealy was the first producer to use prime time network television, Cohen said.
In 1970 he moved to Englander, a producer that had pioneered latex bedding, first working in advertising and then in sales handling national accounts, a field he would quickly master.
While he was at Englander he was on the committee that decided to change the pricing structure for twin and full mattresses.
"At that time they were priced the same," he recalled. "We raised the price of the full, the beginning of the industry's push to get consumers to step up to queen-sized bedding."
That move was important, Cohen said, because it closed the gap that had existed between twin/full and queen-size prices.
While he was at Englander he hired Larry McKay from retailer Polk Bros., where he was assistant bedding buyer. McKay, who remains one of Cohen's many friends, recently left Comfort Solutions.
After his Englander years Cohen moved to Serta Chicago, where he was director of sales, and then to Simmons, where Marshall Fields (now Macy's) in Chicago was a key account.
In 1985 he joined Ernie Wuliger at Stearns & Foster. After Wuliger consolidated the Sealy brand, Cohen became director of sales at Sealy for the Sears account.
He said he was fortunate to work with some of the major figures of the bedding industry.
He described Haas and Wuliger as "both very enthusiastic leaders who had a lot of passion for the business, but went in different directions." Cohen said Unger had a relentless drive for excellence.
How has the industry changed over the years?
"There used to be so much promotional hoopla surrounding new mattress lines," Cohen said. "The industry used to do a lot more for the retailers, not just providing an ad for a Labor Day sale, but giving retailers events."
Cohen, who lives in this Chicago suburb, can be reached at jackcohen1907@comcast.net.
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