Frank Hood replaces Bob Hellyer as Kingsdown president

David Perry -- Furniture Today, February 9, 2012

MEBANE, N.C. — Top 10 bedding producer Kingsdown has promoted Frank Hood, a veteran consumer products industry executive who was most recently president of Kingsdown's Sleep to Live Institute, to president of the company.

Frank Hood

Joe Schmoeller

Kevin Damewood

He replaces industry veteran Bob Hellyer, who left the company earlier this week after serving as president for the past year.

Kingsdown also announced that Joe Schmoeller has been promoted to executive vice president and chief operating officer and Kevin Damewood has been promoted to executive vice president of sales and marketing.

"When you look at the sleep products industry today, the successful brands are ones being led by people from outside the industry who are able to bring a fresh and new perspective on how we present ourselves to the consumer," said Eric Hinshaw, Kingsdown's CEO. "Frank is one of these people. His background in technology and experience in implementing strong marketing programs at Quiznos and Krispy Kreme have given us enormous insight on how we can continue to grow our company and brands. I am very excited about his expanded role with us."

Hinshaw said that the combination of Hood's vision with the trade experience and relationships of Schmoeller and Damewood "allows Kingsdown to provide its customers with a very powerful combination of service and skill."

Hellyer, who held top posts at Simmons and Spring Air before becoming president of Kingsdown, has not announced his plans. Hinshaw said, "I want to thank Bob for his contributions to our company this past year and wish him the best in his future endeavors."

Hood said his focus will be to better align the entire organization around the company's science of sleep message and its diagnostics program.

"Our bedMatch technology has revolutionized the way bedding is sold because we were the first to use science to help a consumer find the right mattress and pillow for their body type," he said. "More than six million consumers have used the system to date, which has become our unique selling proposition in the market."

"We need to make sure that our entire organization is built around doing all we can to assist retailers who carry the Kingsdown brands and the consumers who have come to rely on the science and efficacy of bedMatch technology to get a better and more restorative night's sleep," he added.

Hood joined Kingsdown in 2008 as senior vice president and chief information officer. He later added the title of president of the Sleep to Live Institute, which licenses bedMatch technology. More recently, he became involved in Kingsdown's marketing efforts.

Before joining the company, he was a senior vice president of Quiznos and prior to that post, was senior vice president of Krispy Kreme Doughnuts from 1997 to 2005.

Schmoeller joined Kingsdown in 1997 as senior vice president of operations overseeing production, supply chain management and distribution. He joined the company from Carpenter, where he spent 17 years in senior operations roles as well.

Damewood joined Kingsdown in 2010 as senior vice president of U.S. sales. He has more than 27 years experience in the sleep products industry serving in the top sales and marketing roles for Spring Air and Simmons during his career.