Out-of-the-box thinking is key to Kingsdown's future
Knowledge is king
David Perry -- Furniture Today, April 17, 2008
MEBANE, N.C. — Kingsdown will record dramatic growth in the mattress industry by continuing to think and act differently from other bedding producers, according to its long-time leader.
Eric Hinshaw, who has headed the Top 10 producer for decades, said that out-of-the-box thinking is a key to the company’s future.
“Right now,” Hinshaw said the other day, seated in a conference room at the company’s headquarters here, where framed pictures traced the company’s history back more than 100 years, “price is a surrogate for knowledge in the mattress selling proposition. Our BodyDiagnostics system is the best way to make knowledge the basis of the selling proposition.”
That system, developed at Kingsdown under Hinshaw’s supervision, is a diagnostic tool (it was formerly called DormoDiagnostics) that takes several measurements of the consumer’s body as he or she lies on a test bed and then recommends the Kingsdown bed that’s best for that consumer. BodyDiagnostics, the only system of its kind in widespread use in the industry, helps retailers significantly boost their sales tickets and image in the marketplace, Hinshaw said. Better sleep, he said, does sell.
He contends that no bedding producer sells more beds at more than $2,000 than Kingsdown. And that company is doing so with a line that consists almost entirely of innerspring bedding.
Hinshaw said Kingsdown has the largest innerspring presence at the upper end of the market of any bedding producer. “Springs have had to be involved,” he said, as Kingsdown has focused on providing posture alignment and pressure relief. And yet, he continued, Kingsdown is open-minded about its choice of sleep surfaces. “We don’t care what the sleep surface is that is involved with helping consumers get better sleep,” he said. “What we care about is better sleep.”
The company is using new spring units and configurations in its newest mattresses and box springs. It has introduced its Solo construction in its BodyDuet and BodyCaress models, which debuted at the recent Las Vegas Market. That patented design provides personalized sleeping zones for each sleeper, thereby reducing partner disturbance, according to the company. The BodyDuet retails for $3,000 in queen, while the BodyCaress retails for $4,500.
The BodyCaress bed also features an unusual coil-on-coil box spring. The top coil is the Caress Coil, a polymer spring encased in memory foam. Imported from Italy, that coil provides support and comfort characteristics new to the industry, according to the company. Hinshaw said he knows of no other coil-on-coil box spring on the market.
Both the BodyDuet and BodyCaress beds complement Kingsdown’s BodyDiagnostics line.
With the addition of bedding veteran Chris Henning, named president of North America sales early this year, Kingsdown is positioned for growth, according to Hinshaw. “We are a big player,” he said, “and we plan to become one of the biggest. We are just as interested in North and South America as we are in the rest of the world.”
While Henning will focus on North and South America, Lee Hinshaw, recently named president of Kingsdown’s international sales, will handle sales in the rest of the world.
Kingsdown exports its mattresses to more than two dozen countries, making it the largest bedding exporter in the United States, in Hinshaw’s view. That’s another way the company stands apart from its competition.
Hinshaw says the largest portion of Kingsdown’s business comes from the United States, a market that still offers substantial growth opportunities.
“We only have decent saturation in a small geographic area in the U.S.,” he said. Distribution will continue to be selective: “Our saturation won’t be at the level of others,” Hinshaw said.
The leaders that Kingsdown has added to its team, including Henning, Jim Ross, Joe Paviglianti and Robert Oexman, are all bedding veterans. That knowledge is important in areas like sales, marketing and research and development, Hinshaw said. But they also share an ability “to think outside the box,” he said. “Even though their background is mattresses, all of them in previous jobs had the aim to take the bedding proposition toward health and wellness.” That’s the direction in which Kingsdown is headed, according to Hinshaw.
