We can’t let another week go by without saluting some exceptional bedding retailers who blew the competition away last year. Yes, we are talking about the 10 bedding specialty stores that loomed large on our latest list of the Top 100 U.S. Furniture Stores.

That listing is one of our benchmark reports each year, and it usually contains good news for the bedding industry. The bedding specialty stores on the list each year typically are top performers.

But, as we noted in the Top 100 report in our May 28, issue, the 10 bedding specialists on this year’s list really outdid themselves. For example:

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Our latest bedding producer rankings, which you’ll find in our latest print issue and soon in our online store, illustrate yet again the rapidly changing nature of our industry. There are some familiar shining stars but, overall, many of the industry’s best-known players experienced a tough year in 2006.


A majority of the growth among the industry’s top producers came from just three companies: Simmons, which added $114 million in shipments in 2006; Tempur-Pedic, which added $82 million; and Select Comfort, which added $58 million. Together, the three accounted for almost 75% of the growth recorded by the Top 15 U.S. Bedding Producers.


The growth registe...Read More

As one private equity company enters the bedding industry, another appears to be wrapping up its short and ill-fated venture into the world of mattresses.

The role of private equity companies in the bedding industry is controversial. One body of opinion holds that those companies are too focused on financial issues and aren’t a healthy force for our industry. Another holds that they have brought much-needed financial and marketing sophistication to our industry. The truth, as usual, probably lies somewhere in between those two views.

It’s interesting that we haven’t heard a lot of

enthusiasm about the entry of a major private equity player into bedding. Sun Capital Partners, which has about $10 billion under managem...Read More

As the bedding industry celebrates Memorial Day, the traditional kickoff of the important summer sales season, it’s a good time to take stock of where we are, what’s happening, and what it all means.

In many of our conversations with industry leaders, we’re told the industry is in the midst of major changes. New distribution channels are opening. Potential blockbuster mergers are in the works. Big changes are coming at retail.

It’s just another year in bedding, it seems to us. One characteristic of a dynamic industry, which bedding has been for years, is that it’s constantly changing. The competitive climate forces those changes. Retailers will change lines when times get tough, looking for fresh product and fresh ideas. Producers, locked in an increasingly competitive fight for market share, must ...Read More