Spears: Still making dough
By David Perry -- Furniture Today, January 28, 2007
Rome, Ga. — Terry Spears, who runs one of the South's largest bedding factories from this city deep in the heart of Dixie, has written a uniquely American success story. The former bakery salesman even has a funny line about his development as a businessman.
"I used to make a lot of dough," Spears said. "Now I'm in the mattress business."
After the chuckles die down, he adds this postscript: "Now I'm not complaining one bit. This is the American success story. In this country you have the opportunity to succeed."
Despite his folksy protestations to the contrary, Spears is still making dough these days. His iron determination has brought him success in the hyper-competitive bedding industry, one he was first drawn to in 1970 when he began visiting his father-in-law's mattress factory.
Something about that business, about bundling various raw materials into rectangles on the factory floor and then delivering them to customers, lit a spark in Spears. He and his brother, Ed, founded Spears Mattress in 1973 and sold their own brand for a decade before stepping out onto a broader stage.
"First we started the Spears brand," recalled Terry Spears, president. "And we grew that brand. Then, in 1982, we joined Lady Americana and that gave us another shot to grow. In 1985 we joined Englander, which has been a brand since 1894, and has good name recognition. We have always been looking for ways to better our business."
One of those ways was to move into a huge former fiber plant in Rome 20 years ago. Local, county and state officials were on hand in 1986 when the Spears brothers dedicated the 350,000-square-foot factory.
At that time, most of the space was reserved for future growth. Now the growth has become a reality, and production has been expanded accordingly.
The factory, with production techniques and equipment designed by Terry Spears, turns out about 1,200 pieces per day and can comfortably produce about 2,000 per day. That's a far cry from the 25 pieces per week that the Spears brothers — with the help of their wives — made in the early days of the business.
"From the initial layout of the factory in 1985, we were preparing for future growth," Terry Spears said. "We could just about double our business. This building is perfect for a mattress company. It is fairly wide and long."
Spears Mattress produces about 70 types of bedding these days — more than four times the choices available 20 years ago — for the Spears, Southern Cross and Englander brands. The line includes everything from visco-elastic cushioned beds to latex beds to various innerspring models and enables the company to meet its dealers' full range of needs, Spears said.
That's one of the reasons the Mattressmax gallery program, which Spears has been refining for more than a decade, is growing these days, he added. Spears has opened more than two dozen Mattressmax galleries across the Southeast.
"The Englander Mattressmax gallery program has seen huge growth in the Southeast," said Bob Ashburn, executive vice president of sales and marketing, who joined Spears in 1990 after stints with Simmons and Classic. "The gallery program creates a unique selling environment, with the premium products in our Mattressmax program showcased with electronic point-of-sale support. These galleries can be tailored to dealers' needs and the demographics in their area."
Englander is showing at this week's Las Vegas Market in the World Market Center, B-862.
The Spears plant has a Mattressmax gallery, which gives company officials a chance to continue to develop the retail programs, Ashburn said.
Spears Mattress positioned itself for growth by recently joining with new financial partners. Spears said that will help his company continue to build the Englander brand — the old-fashioned way, one bed at a time.
"We still have to make a better product than our competitors," Spears said. "That hasn't changed. And we have to continue to work hard to make our dealers successful."
In the mattress business, that's a time-tested formula for making dough.
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