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Bedding producer Coco-Mat uses all-natural ingredients

David Perry -- Furniture Today, October 14, 2011

Rosemary Charou gets comfortable on a four-layer Coco-Mat sleep system at ABC Carpet & Home in New York.NEW YORK - With a recipe for fried octopus with red orange sauce in its catalog, you know this isn't just a typical mattress company. Another recipe, this one for roasted figs, also suggests the company's exotic roots.
     Take a closer look at the catalog, and it will look Greek. And it is.
     Coco-Mat, based in Kifissia, an affluent suburb of Athens, entered the U.S. market a year ago. The maker of natural bedding made its debut in trendy ABC Carpet & Home on Broadway here.
     The coco in the company's name refers to coco fibers, which surround a coconut. They are used in most of the company's products to ensure the correct ventilation of the mattresses. The coco fibers are sterilized and sprayed with natural rubber juice for long life.
     Other key ingredients in this eco-friendly line include natural rubber, horse hair, wool and cotton, goose down, cactus, silk and even seaweed, which the company says provides "a natural shield against allergies, asthma and respiratory problems."
     "Coco-Mat believes that Mother Nature has a plan," the company says in its catalog. "Whatever she provides us with has a raison d'etre, perfect functionality and sometimes, yet to be revealed properties."
     The company drives that point home by quoting a famous Greek from antiquity, Theophrastus, who said: "If there is a purpose in nature, it is not to serve mankind, but to ensure the perpetual reproduction of all."
     A more modern perspective is provided by Rosemary Charou, who works in Coco-Mat's international department and is based at ABC Carpet & Home.
     "Coco-Mat makes products exclusively out of natural raw materials," she said. "All the covers are removable to enhance hygiene through time. The maximum elasticity is being achieved by layering: Bed mattress, mattress, top Charou Charou shows a cut-out that reveals the various layers offered in Coco-Mat sleep systems.mattress and topper. Our goal is to support all of the body evenly, providing the best blood circulation and eliminating pressure to the heaviest parts of the body, and doing these things naturally and metal-free."
     Coco-Mat calls that the "four layer" sleep system. It retails for about $11,000 in queen.
     Why doesn't the company use metal in its beds? Charou said that even though metal is a natural material "it is not elastic by its own properties."
     She said Coco-Mat entered the U.S. with ABC because the two companies share "the same passion for sustainability, the same love for planet and the same goal of making life naturally wonderful." The Coco-Mat beds are in the ABC Carpet & Home stores in New York and in Delray Beach, Fla.
     Charou said the company has gotten a good response in this country.
     "The U.S. market has received Coco-Mat with curiosity, enthusiasm and some relief," she said. "The U.S. is not an easy market for such an innovative metal-free product, but this is what we like. We enjoy the challenge to create our customer's filters and criteria, to train them on the good natural sleep, to break the exclusively coil mattress tradition, and to give natural choices they might have never thought of before. This is the reason that Coco-Mat beyond being a sleeping brand is an experience and a philosophy."
     The company welcomes customers to its beds by slipping a towel, made of recycled fabrics, over the pillow.
     "We see each visitor as a guest in our home, welcoming him or her with a fresh squeezed juice or a nice coffee, a treat with all our appreciation and good energy," Charou said.
     Coco-Mat has distributed its products in Europe, the Middle East and Asia for more than 20 years. "We decided the time was right for the U.S. and Canada market," Charou said.
     Now about that recipe for fried octopus with red orange sauce. You start with a nice plump octopus...

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