Vegas Summary: Robust Intros, But Uncertainty Remains An Issue
David Perry -- Furniture Today, August 25, 2011
David Perry Executive editor
And so this strange mattress year continues its unsteady run.
That's my summary of where we are these days in Mattressville following a couple of dozen conversations with key bedding and sleep accessories producers at the recent Las Vegas Market.
As I noted in my last column, the Vegas market showcased a surprisingly robust offering of mattress lines, and last-minute product additions made it an even stronger introductory market than I expected.
The overall traffic count in Las Vegas was down, it seemed to me. The market got off to a slow start Monday (a travel day for some retailers, I believe), but then picked up steam. By midweek most of the companies I visited were pleased with their shows, or at least found some positives to take away from the event.
I heard some disquieting reports about retail business, with one well-placed exec telling me that the trend toward barbell retailing - strength at the low end and the high end - has given way to a one-sided barbell, with only high-end bedding still selling well. It's not hard to find evidence for that. Just look at those stellar results that Tempur-Pedic keeps posting.
The first-half numbers recently issued by the International Sleep Products Assn. reinforce the power of specialty sleep bedding. ISPA said that innerspring mattress units were up 1.9% in the first half, compared with 20.4% for specialty mattress units. The trends are similar on the dollar side of the equation, with the dollar value of innerspring mattress shipments rising 4.5% in the first half, a figure dwarfed by the 20.9% dollar gains posted by the specialty mattress segment.
One senior bedding executive looked at those figures and declared that a new era of specialty sleep is on the way. The momentum being generated by foam bedding, he said, will sweep through the industry in the next few years, bringing higher sales tickets that everyone will appreciate.
But it would be a mistake to think the innerspring segment won't generate some growth in its own right. Major bedding producers continue to introduce new spring designs, a good sign for the future. And the major brands remain heavily focused on innerspring lines.
There was some thought at the Las Vegas show that the industry is not enjoying nearly as strong a year as those ISPA first-half figures - overall units up 2.1% and dollars up 7.2% - suggest. Some execs feel the industry is barely ahead for the year - and that was before we all got that bad news on the stock market declines.
Some bedding leaders noted that they see retailers taking more aggressive steps to grow their business these days. That's a positive for the industry. The future belongs to those who promote aggressively.
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