High-end mattress maker Vi-Spring enters North America
British company produces custom-order beds
Michael Knell -- Furniture Today, February 8, 2010
 Attica Furnishings in Halifax, Nova Scotia, is showing Vi-Spring mattresses in this display. Each piece, including headboard, is available in the customer’s choice of fabric. Other options for mattresses include coil count and coil tension. |
EDMONTON, Alberta — British high-end mattress maker Vi-Spring has entered the North America market, opening six independent retail accounts in Canada and another in Chicago, while naming industry veteran Terence Bachor as its director of North American operations.
"I am very excited to be pioneering the launch of Vi-Spring in North America," Bachor said in a statement. "This product is truly a dream product for me. It's made from 100% natural fiber and has the most incredible luxurious feel - a combination that just can't be beat."
Bachor said every Vi-Spring mattress is hand-made at the company's factory in Plymouth, England.
"Each is also designed and built around the customer's demands," he said. "Vi-Spring's expert craftsmen spend up to eight weeks creating each bed. Divans (the British term for daybeds) and headboards are upholstered in the customer's choice of fabric, with color palettes including both traditional neutral tones and bold contemporary colors to suit any interior design. Vi-Spring mattresses contain only natural fillings of the highest quality - including cashmere, mohair, cotton and lamb's wool."
Consumers are offered choices of four coil tensions, seven coil counts and nine combinations of fills. Each coil is made from vanadium steel and wrapped in calico cotton.
"We even offer to engrave the customer's name onto a brass plate and put it on the divan or box spring," Bachor said. Each mattress has a lifetime warranty, he added.
Vi-Spring's initial North American offering includes seven models at price points ranging from just under C$3,000 for a queen set to C$37,000 for a fully decked-out king set including mattress, box springs and headboard.
Bachor, who also was involved in the launch of the Hypnos luxury mattress brand in Canada seven years ago, said initial consumer response to the Vi-Spring line has been better than expected. Vi-Spring is advertising in Canadian House & Home magazine, he said.
Retailers selling Vi-Spring include Attica Furnishings in Halifax, Nova Scotia; Cadieux Ltd. in Ottawa; HorseFeathersHome in Toronto; Bricks Fine Furniture in Winnipeg, Manitoba; McElheran's Fine Furniture in Edmonton, Alberta; and Jordan's Fine Furniture in Vancouver, British Columbia.
The line also is at Chicago Luxury Beds, which Bachor said "is quite the feather in our cap." He said the sleep specialist has committed to giving Vi-Spring as much as half of its floor space.
Bachor said he hopes to have additional retail space in California, Arizona, Texas, Florida and New York by the end of the year.
Vi-Spring has set up two North American warehouses to supply retailers and has about C$500,000 in inventory ready for immediate shipments, all in standard fabrics, with a container shipped every two weeks. Special orders are delivered in six to eight weeks.
Bachor can be reached by e-mail at tbachor@vispring.com.
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