Tempurpedic

The New York Times sits with H. Thomas Bryant, chief executive of today’s most profitable mattress manufacturing company, Tempure-Pedic. Below are some excerpts to the interview:

Q. Your company is not even 20 years old?

A. That’s true; we’ve been in the U.S. now for 13 years. It’s taken us quite a while to establish a business and a brand and start growing. About six years ago, when we started our distribution into furniture and bedding stores, we started advertising more aggressively.

Dust mites are the leading cause of allergy in the house hold and you have the power to keep it from affecting you and your family:

• Enclose your mattresses, including your pillows, with a hypoallergenic barrier. If you own a box spring, make sure that your comforters and duvets are made of hypoallergenic materials as well. The full encasement will reduce mites from inhibiting the area, keeping your sleep sanctuary free from it
• Wash your beddings in warm water of about 130°F, to ensure that germs and mites are killed. Do this weekly. For mattress pads and heavier blankets, do this biweekly.

Custom designed beddings provide a really personal touch to the bedroom. You can have everything in the exact color and style you want, as you have envisioned it. And since most stores don’t normally have this, finding a reliable custom designer could prove difficult.

Enter Inmod, an interactive site where you not only have the power to do your own designs via the virtual bedroom, you can even order what you have created and they will ship it right to your doorstep. Price range from $200 up.

A pharmaceutically graded bedding protector from Bedding Etc. ensures no headaches and running nose caused by allergies from dust mites. The top layer is waterproof, with a breathable surface.

The item is made in New Jersey, using 100% terry cotton with 10 years warranty.

Some 15 very well-known bedding producers are found in Las Vegas and new bedding collections are supposedly found in this state constantly.

Sealy is promising a “major innovation.” Simmons offers new comfort options in its Beautyrest Black line. A new promotional and midpriced line is being launched by Serta’s owners. Spring Air is loaded, with four revamped bedding lines. And Leggett & Platt will show its high-end “smart bed,” which generated plenty of buzz at the recent Consumer Electronics Show.

Some more industry news, this time concerning the New Jersey areas…If you have been following the news on this section, you would have read plenty of changes in the ownership and proprietorship of many mattress operators and manufacturers.  There’s too much going on in this industry!

RANDOLPH Mattress Discounters reportedly agreed last week to buy 12 Rockaway Bedding stores for $660,000 from the bankrupt bed seller. Upper Marlboro, Md.-based Mattress Discounters had previously offered to buy 18 stores from Rockaway Bedding, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in April, but withdrew the $1.7 million bid last month.  However, things could change again because the stores will reportedly be put up for sale in an auction. Rockaway Bedding has received court approval to hire a liquidator to sell about 121 of its 180 stores.

Your mattress needs dust mite covers in order to prevent dust mite fragments from taking over your bed. They are sometimes the cause of itchines, watery eyes, stuffy nose, sneezing, cough, allergies and headache.

This particular cover is made by Euphoria:

Euphoria dust mite mattress and pillow covers are everything you need to achieve a perfect night’s sleep without the disruption of dust mite allergies. Protect your mattress and pillows with luxurious covers crafted from 100% handpicked organic cotton from the Peruvian Andes and woven in Germany and Switzerland. The extra care taken to produce this dust mite proof bedding results in a breathable fabric that has a silky, soft finish, and provides long-lasting durability that you will be able to use for many years.

Spring Air Co., maker of Spring Air mattresses, has merged with Consolidated Bedding Inc and is now expanding its mattress operations in the United States.

Effective July 2, the chief executive officer of Spring Air will be Robert W. Hellyer, 48 of Roswell, Ga. Hellyer was most recently president of Simmons Mattress Co. Previously, he was the head of national sales for Stearns and Foster, a division of Sealy Inc. Jim Nation, the current president of The Spring Air Company, will hold the same title in the new Spring Air. Steve Antinori, currently chairman and chief executive officer of Consolidated will become chairman of the Spring Air board, the company said in a statement.

Overseas, Hilding Anders of Sweden,a leader in mattress manufacturing in Europe and Asia is acquiring another bedding company, Tropico, which based in Czech Republic.

Tropico has a production facility and a foam cutting site outside Prague, and a mattress assembly site in Slovakia. Net sales in 2006 amounted to SEK 90 million. The company, established in 2000, has shown a strong sales growth in recent years, doubling turnover since 2003.

“We see a considerable potential in the Czech market”, said Anders Palsson, president and chief executive of Hilding Anders. “The consumers’ purchasing power in Czech Republic and the surrounding markets is gradually increasing. It has therefore been in our plans to expand Hilding Anders’ business in this area, and we are now executing that strategy”.

Here’s a fun fact you might be interested to know this Valentine’s day…

According to a study done by Leggett & Platt, having sex on an innerspring mattress, as opposed to air mattress or foam mattress, is tons better. Do you agree with it?

The results: 68% of respondents prefer an innerspring mattress for sex, while 25% like foam and 7% prefer air, according to L&P.