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Strong bedding market boosts hopes for this year

David Perry -- Furniture Today, February 11, 2011

LAS VEGAS — The mattress industry enjoyed a booming market here, boosting hopes for a strong performance by the industry this year.

Producers used words like "phenomenal," "amazing" and "record-breaking" to describe activity in their showrooms, which were bursting with new lines as the industry collectively made a broad rollout of new innerspring and specialty sleep models.

Simmons executive Rolf Sannes stands with an oversized display of the company's new Smart Response Pocketed Coil.

Top 15 producers Sealy, Serta, Simmons, Tempur- Pedic, Comfort Solutions, International Bedding, Therapedic, Spring Air, Restonic and Englander all reported strong markets, as did many other bedding exhibitors.

Kingsdown CEO Eric Hinshaw was pleased with his Top 10 company's first showing in the World Market Center. "We put on a fabulous party," he said, "and we were swamped with people. We have a lot of moving parts that came together at the right time."

"It was phenomenal," said Earl Kluft, CEO of E.S. Kluft & Co. "We had a steady stream of the right people, the people we want to do business with. They always come in, but this time we saw more of them than ever. They all want us to follow up with them."

Five Star President Jim Nation offered this assessment: "Market was very good. We had about a 30% increase over the previous winter market. We saw a lot of good quality dealers and we are getting bigger accounts."

Serta President Bob Sherman relaxes on an adjustable bed in the new iComfort specialty sleep bedding line.

"We had a really good market," added Jeff Scorziell, president of Anatomic Global. "Traffic was phenomenal. What we were hearing from retailers, which I like to hear, is that they were willing to buy."

Classic Brands enjoyed a "good" market, said Mike Zippelli, president. "Everybody who said they would come in did come in. Market was well attended."

Stuart Carlitz, CEO of Eclipse and Eastman House, said both lines did well. "Retailers were looking to make changes," he said. "They are looking for ways to improve their business this year."

Richard Brass, president of T3 Recovery Products, said traffic was strong and interest in his line of high-performance mattresses continues to grow.

Vivon, showing massage mattresses in a new program with Brookstone, also did well. "It was beyond our expectations - phenomenal," said Dennis Sones, chief marketing officer. "The spark for getting consumers in showrooms is not just a price, it's what's new. There is no spark if there is nothing new."

Walt Bader, president of OMI, said retailers responded to his line of organic mattresses. "Success is building on strong word-of-mouth reports from our retailers," he said. "Retailers realize this category is not a fad."

The sleep accessories segment also performed well in Las Vegas.

Sealy employees Hillary Rice, left, Martha Bass, Jamie Piper and Mark Delahanty wear “in bed” T-shirts that promote a social media campaign backing the new Sealy Posturepedic line.

DreamFit, which offers sheets, pillows and mattress and pillow protectors, enjoyed a booming market, said Bob Pearce, director of sales and marketing. "There is more retail awareness about the need to enhance their customers' comfort and to enhance their profitability," he said.

Also doing well in the sleep accessories field was Leggett & Platt, whose silver-treated mattress protector program, offering antimicrobial protection, was "an instant success," according to Herman Tam, vice president of marketing for L&P's Consumer Products Group. "We wrote our first order at 8:05 a.m. on the first day of market. We had more buyers than shoppers."

Also pleased was Fabrictech International, a supplier of mattress and pillow protectors. "This was the best market we've ever had," said Jeff Bergman, president. "We saw every major customer we expected - and more."

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