Town welcomes Tempur-Pedic
David Perry -- Furniture Today, December 5, 2011
The Custard Stand is a popular eatery in Duffield, Va.
DUFFIELD, Va. - The Tempur-Pedic mattress and pillow factory here is just down the road from one of this town's other big attractions: the Custard Stand.
Rick Peak, materials manager for the 550,000-square-foot plant, raves about the hamburgers and hot dogs served up by the Custard Stand's modest kitchen in a former caboose, now permanently anchored near Duffield's single stoplight.
Such are the joys of small town living for the 300 employees of this big-time bedding producer. Tempur-Pedic, the worldwide leader in the specialty sleep arena, operates just three factories in the world, and one is in this seemingly unlikely setting in the western Virginia mountains, far from any big cities.
The company's first factory, a 500,000-square-foot facility, opened in Denmark and remains at that site today. It has been making "Tempur" material - the trademarked name for Tempur-Pedic's proprietary memory foam formulation - since the early 1990s.
The factory in Duffield opened in 2001 and is located on a 46-acre site, with more than 13 acres under roof. In May of 2001 it produced the first U.S.-made Tempur-Pedic mattress. Millions have since followed; Tempur-Pedic says there are more than 6 million Tempur-Pedic owners in the U.S. these days.
Tempur-Pedic's newest factory is an 800,000-squarefoot monster in Albuquerque, N.M., which opened in 2007 and was described by the company at that time as the world's largest mattress factory.
Together the three factories, all highly automated and ISO-certified, represent a $200 million investment by Tempur-Pedic.
Why a factory in Duffield?
The company chose this site, about 30 miles north of Kingsport, Tenn., because of its access to good highways, 
Framed by the Appalachian Mountains, Tempur-Pedic’s Duffield, Va., factory is in a picturesque setting.
the availability of a skilled work force in the area, and attractive tax incentives from the state of Virginia, which advertises that it is "open for business" on a sign just inside the Virginia border as you leave Kingsport.
The Duffield plant is about 150 miles from Lexington, Ky., where Tempur-Pedic's corporate offices are located. A tour of the factory led by Rick Anderson, president of Tempur-Pedic North America, reveals a sprawling, modern, clean and busy factory, where the company pours what it always refers to as "Tempur material." Yes, it is memory foam, but this brand-conscious company is careful to build its own brand names, and "Tempur" is its trademarked name for its pressure-relieving and motion-absorbing material.
The Duffield factory makes pillows - more than 12 million have been produced since the plant opened - and mattresses. Officials wouldn't reveal the total mattress production there.
Tempur-Pedic's factories are busy, but they are only operating at half of total capacity. And that means that the company can produce millions more of its mattresses with little additional investment - a sign of much more growth in Tempur-Pedic's future, officials said.
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