Levin opens three mattress stores, with more on way

Clint Engel -- Furniture Today, June 4, 2012

The interiors of the new Levin Mattress stores feature warm rust and gold tone colors, teak fixtures, repurposed wood flooring and stacked stone architectural accents.

Levin Furniture has commenced expansion of its Levin Mattress stores with the opening of three locations, including this approximately 4,500-square-foot store in Cranberry Township, Pa.

SMITHON, Pa. — Levin Furniture has opened three additional Levin Mattress specialty stores, the first step in a plan to open as many as 25 stores in its greater Pittsburgh and northeastern Ohio markets.

The new stores, which opened late last month, average 4,500 square feet and are in Cleveland, Cranberry Township, Pa., and the Fox Chapel area of Pittsburgh. Levin also has a sleep shop in Pittsburgh's Squirrel Hill area.

A fifth is coming in a few weeks to Monroeville, Pa., the company said in a release. The stores feature about 42 SKUs and key suppliers are Sealy, Stearns & Foster, Serta and its iComfort gel memory foam line, and Tempur-Pedic. Levin did not disclose sales projections.

"The mattress business has been significantly impacted by the growing presence of mattress specialty stores. We want and need to be a player in the market," said Robert Levin, president of the Smithton, Pa.-based Top 100 company.

The company said sleeps shops have "raised the bar" with attractive and upscale stores. Based on Levin's experience with its first sleep shop in Squirrel Hill, "our current efforts with our stores has been to create a relaxing shopping environment in which customers feel that they are in a ‘best of class' space," the retailer said.

Levin first announced plans to roll-out a bedding chain in September, noting at the time that it planned to open eight to 10 of the shops. In the latest release, Joe Fleckenstein, Levin's vice president for bedding and new business development, raised that estimate, saying Levin now plans to open "as many as 20 additional stores" in the next two to two-and-a-half years.

Tom Zwierzelewski, the retailer's store designer, said the interiors of the new stores are done in warm rust and gold tone colors with teak fixtures and caseworks accented with stacked stone.

The flooring is repurposed walnut-finished wood, and the stores use energy-efficient LED lighting with additional mood and task lighting from surveyor lamps and oil-rubbed bronze finished lamps.

The front entry features upholstered beds from Jonathan Louis with matching accent chairs and benches. And Levin uses vintage over-dyed area rugs in the store - inspired by a visit to ABC Carpet & Home in New York, Zwierzelewski said.

The back wall includes shelves with the store's pillow and mattress pad choices, and additional case goods are used in select areas to help consumers visualize complete bedroom packages.