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David Perry

Bedding resources bust out in new spring showrooms

The spring market is being held against a backdrop of blooming azaleas and daffodils. Nature is starting afresh, and so are some new bedding players in High Point.

Bursting out in new quarters this market are a visco-elastic bedding producer, a mattress protection supplier, an Italian importer, a 101-year-old North Carolina-based bed maker, and the original “T” brand.

We start with the visco producer, Comfor-Pedic, the Seattle-based specialty sleep maker. It is cutting the ribbon on its new East Coast manufacturing and distribution facility, located at 220 Feld Avenue in High Point, two miles from the downtown market district.

The facility includes a showroom, which gives Comfor-Pedic a permanent showroom presence in the Furniture Capital of the World. If you want to check out its line of specialty sleep beds, look for the “Comfor-Cab,” which offers free shuttle service from downtown to the Comfor-Pedic showroom every 15 minutes.

And while you’re there, check out the mattress protection products offered by Protect-A-Bed, which is showing with Comfor-Pedic. Ask for Protect-A-Bed’s Rita Haney. On the Comfor-Pedic front, ask for Scott Smalling, Jack Squires or Butch Webster.

Making its first showing in High Point is Magniflex, the Italian producer of foam-core mattresses. It offers a line of vacuum-packed mattresses, rolled and sealed, at price points from $300 to $1,600 retail. Magniflex starts out with a bang, moving right into the heart of the market in the International Home Furnishings Center, space W-548.

Next, we come to two producers who have had a presence in High Point for many years, but this market find themselves in new quarters.

Therapedic, the “T” brand that sounds a bit like Tempur-Pedic but has been around long before the Tempur-Pedic rocket blasted off, moves from the outskirts of High Point right into the Big Show, in the previously mentioned IHFC.

Celebrating its 50th anniversary next year, Therapedic is a Kathy Ireland brand partner and is showcasing its Ireland beds in the Standard space, M-732, where Kathy’s presence always looms large.

Finally, we come to the bedding producer that’s been around for more than 100 years. That would be Kingsdown, which is hosting its “Jewel of the Night” event April 25-28 at the Greensboro Sheraton’s Koury Center. The high-end specialist has some new twists to show its dealers, and promises special entertainment.

There’s talk of hidden relics and a possible sighting of Cleopatra. She was the first consumer to find just the right bed with Kingsdown’s DormoDiagnostics system.

OK, I just made up that last sentence in order to make you smile. But Kingsdown definitely is worth a visit this market, as are the other companies mentioned.

Good luck on your visits to these new showrooms — and to the familiar bedding showrooms too.