Tempur-Pedic Shreds Competition; Serta Gains Ground in Big 3 Battle
David Perry -- Furniture Today, July 9, 2011
David Perry Executive editor
Memory foam giant Tempur-Pedic is making a mockery out of the battle for market share in the bedding arena.
Bedding's fourth-largest producer posted an incredible 48.6% sales gain last year to boost its bedding shipments to $676 million and gain 3.5 points of valuable market share. That staggering $221 million increase represents almost the entire gain recorded by the full U.S. bedding industry last year, according to Furniture/Today's latest Top 15 Bedding Producers report, which starts on page 12 of this issue.
It is not supposed to be that easy to grow in this mature, fiercely competitive industry. But, as we noted in a recent column, Tempur-Pedic is rewriting the rules of the game.
I'm so impressed with that performance I don't know what else to say. So I'll move on.
Our latest Top 15 list reveals a handful of big winners last year. Only one member of Bedding's Big Three - dependable, aggressive Serta - had a growth year, boosting its shipments 7.7% to $985 million. It was a lackluster year for Sealy and Simmons, both essentially flat. Once again Serta outshone its Big Three rivals.
Another big winner last year was Corsicana, the Texasbased promotional bedding powerhouse. It recorded a 15.2% sales gain to boost shipments to $144 million. Looking for evidence that the market has turned down in price points? Corsicana provides that evidence.
Select Comfort, the airbed producer and retailer, saw its wholesale shipments jump by 9.4% last year to $263 million. Once left for dead by its competitors, the company has engineered a nice rebound story with the biggest turnaround performance last year of any Top 15 producer.
Also doing well was Comfort Solutions, which added some important accounts and boosted shipments 5%, to $147 million. Therapedic, Englander, Restonic and Symbol also grew last year.
It was a tough year for Spring Air, which saw Spring Air-brand shipments drop almost 16% to $80 million. But a close look inside the numbers shows that the new Spring Air entity that emerged in June of 2009 actually improved on the pace of business it registered last year, compared with 2009. Still, the brand has much work to do to regain the standing it once enjoyed.
On the negative side of the ledger, Kingsdown saw its shipments decline by 8.1%, to $114 million. The producer has been more aggressive this year, seeking to regain lost ground.
Overall, it was a very strange year in the industry. Take away Tempur-Pedic's growth bonanza and the industry was essentially flat, according to our analysis, which is based on our Top 15 Bedding Producers report and industrywide figures supplied by the International Sleep Products Assn. In that flat landscape, Serta, Select Comfort, Corsicana and Englander were the biggest gainers. But the bright sun of Tempur-Pedic overshadowed every other Top 15 producer last year.
Contact David Perry at dperry@furnituretoday.com www.furnituretoday.com
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