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Wright stays committed to successful branding

David Perry -- Furniture Today, September 3, 2011

Greg Greg, left, and Don Wright hold pillows made by Wright of Thomasville in the company’s Las Vegas showroom.THOMASVILLE, N.C. — The technology has changed from the hand-turned letter press that launched the business 50 years ago to the QR codes read by smart phones today.

But one thing hasn't changed at Wright of Thomasville: The privately held company's commitment to branding, a key driver in the highly competitive mattress business.

"Branding is what this business is all about," said Don Wright, chairman of the board and a well-known figure in the bedding industry through his work with the International Sleep Products Assn., of which he is immediate past chairman. "It is our job to help our customers brand their products. That's what we've been doing for 50 years."

Wright of Thomasville makes mattress labels, display and marketing materials for all of the major bedding producers and for an array of other bedding manufacturers as well.

The nature of the branding materials has changed over the years, from the lifestyle-oriented mattress labels of the 1970s to today's generally smaller labels. But the labels continue to pack powerful brand-building messages, officials say.

And now Wright of Thomasville supplements the labels with a whole host of top-of-bed branding materials, including foot protectors, pillow shams, pillow covers, banners, signs, mattress handles and corner guards, all Greg Wright holds a picture he painted as part of a creativity exercise for employees at Wright of Thomasville.produced by the company's Showroom Solutions division, recently expanded with its own factory. Those products expand Wright of Thomasville's footprint on retail floors.

The new Showroom Solutions factory, staffed by more than two dozen employees, is just down the road from the company's headquarters here. There embroidery machines hum in harmony, stitching brand names into top-of-bed products.

The new factory gives the company more control over the quality of its products and over shipping schedules, said Greg Wright, Don's brother, who is CEO of the company. And a new express program enables the company to speed short runs of products to its customers in five days.

"By having our factory in town, our customers can come by and look at our products," Greg Wright said. "We are using our 50 years of design experience to push the envelope in what we offer."

As the company celebrates half a century of service, it continues to remain true to founders Bill and Tom Wright's belief that printing is a creative medium and that promises made must be kept.

Today Wright of Thomasville provides one-stop, turnkey solutions for its clients' graphic needs in the home furnishings, mattress, carpet and rug industries. The company has three plants in North Carolina and one in Georgia, and has manufacturing partners in Brazil and China.

Wright of Thomasville has a business office in Hong Kong and a manufacturing joint venture on mainland China, which the company uses to serve non-U.S. customers.

"We have not shifted our domestic production to China," Don Wright said. "We held our own during the recession. I was born and raised in High Point and I hate to see what has happened to our local economy."

Time to market, critical in the mattress industry, makes it essential that Wright remains a domestic producer, Don Wright said. The eight- to 12-week turnaround times from China are "not the way this industry works," he said.

Successful companies have to change with the times, and Wright of Thomasville is no exception. It was quick to embrace the QR codes that give consumers access to detailed information via their smart phones.

Don Wright said QR codes went "from almost nonexistent to very well accepted" in the bedding industry in just 18 months. He credited Leggett & Platt executive Mark Quinn with sparking early interest in the product, and said Simmons also "did a good job of embracing" the technology.

Wright is printing QR codes on a variety of marketing and branding materials, including labels. "We are just at the tip of the iceberg on this as far as I'm concerned," Don Wright said.

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