Englander Sleep Products welcomes Brazil licensee Smart Flex

David Perry -- Furniture Today, February 13, 2013

Kevin Toman, second from right, Englander’s CEO and president, meets with executives of new Brazil licensee Smart Flex. From left are Smart Flex founder Guilherme Mello Sr., his son Guilherme Mello, managing director, and Bruno Fogo, the company’s vice president of sales.

OLIVE BRANCH, Miss. — Top 10 bedding producer Englander Sleep Products, based here, has added a Brazilian bedding producer to its roster of international licensees.

Smart Flex Industria De Colchoes of Sao Paulo will make and market Englander-branded bedding throughout its home country, Englander announced.

Kevin Toman, Englander's president and CEO, said Smart Flex is Brazil's largest producer of innerspring mattresses and is a fully integrated operation that manufactures its own springs and foam.

"We're very happy to have partnered with a highly successful bedding producer that distributes throughout the largest country in South America," Toman said. "We're also pleased to represent Smart Flex's first licensed mattress brand." 

Headed by managing director Guilherme Mello, Smart Flex was founded in 1987 and makes its own line of higher-end beds in a range of models, styles and comfort levels.

Toman said Smart Flex plans to market Englander's E-gel and Tension Ease products, among other company lines, and recently launched Englander-branded beds at Sleep House, a 33-store mattress and sleep accessory chain in Sao Paulo.

Englander-branded beds made by Smart Flex of Brazil are showcased in an exhibition hall in Sao Paulo. More than 300 retail sales associates from Sleep House toured the product presentation.

As part of the kickoff, representatives from the three companies participated in a series of meetings and events that included tours of Smart Flex's factory and visits to several Sleep House stores, aimed at rolling out the Englander brand to the retailer's more than 300 floor salespeople, officials said.

In addition to Brazil, Englander mattresses are available internationally in Australia, New Zealand, China, India, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Korea, Pakistan, Malaysia, Vietnam, Cambodia and the Philippines.