The cooling technology in Ashley’s Millennium bedding line offers a combination of latex and a variety of memory foams.

HIGH POINT — Bedding manufacturers showing at the spring market reported mix results, with a few touting it as among the best ever and others indicating that the return to a more normal market allowed for strategic conversations and planning with retail partners.

Loosened mask and travel restrictions boosted attendance, resulting in busy showrooms across the market. The bedding landscape, although filled with a smaller lineup, reaped the rewards of being at the spring show.

Richard Fleck, president of Paramount Sleep, said the attendance in the showroom had reached pre-COVID levels and ranked the market in the company’s top 3 most successful.

“We expected market to be good,” he said, adding that retailers were looking for ideas and new products to spur on business that has softened in the past couple of months. “Things have stabilized with supply chain and price increases. People here are looking for ways to grow their business.”

Fleck said about half of the buyers in the showroom were prospecting for new products, including the company’s Nature’s Spa, hybrid mattresses and new Paramount products.

Ashley Furniture highlighted its Millennium mattress lineup featuring cooling technology priced to retail from $1,499 to $1,999 in queen. Brad Rogers, senior vice president of bedding for Ashley, said the step-up collection targets a more discerning consumer.

At the market, Rogers said the downturn at retail had buyers on the hunt for alternative products.

“Traffic has been very good with a packed showroom Thursday,” he said, adding that the weekend was also brisk. “We back to pre-COVID market levels. Retailers are looking for answers because business has been soft, and we’re prepared to capitalize on their search.”

The company has shifted its mattress production to a domestic strategy with manufacturing at its facilities in Saltillo, Miss., and Verona, Miss. In addition to mattress production, the company is making its own coils and will be pouring its own foam by the third quarter.

“We have tremendous value and offer retailers more at any price point than anyone else can,” Rogers said, adding that Ashley’s entire bedding line is roll-packed.

Klaussner’s Enso Sleep Systems is capitalizing on its manufacturing partnership with a facility in South Carolina to meet its retailers’ needs for hybrids. The company unveiled luxury hybrid mattresses feature quilted tops to accentuate flat-top foam mattresses. The hybrids are priced to retail from $1,299 to $1,499.

The company’s showstopper was an adjustable bed base with upholstered headboard and lift-up storage underneath. Priced to retail at $1,999, Mark Akerman, president of Enso Sleep Systems by Klaussner, said the product was designed for small-space living or guest bedrooms, giving hosts built-in storage for linens and other items.

He characterized the market as “better than expected.”

“We had some more walk-in traffic than we have seen in the past,” Akerman said. “We’re moving closer to the new normal. We are still working by appointment, and the appointments we had set came.”

Sleep brands Serta, Sleepwell and SilentNight, anchor the fifth floor of the Main wing in the International Home Furnishings Center, and Paul Kahl, vice president of sales for AW Inds., manufacturer of the three brands, said the market had been strong.

The company came armed with a number of new products including the five-model Highclere collection, part of the British SilentNight brand. Designed with a mixture of single- and double-sided mattress, the collection is inspired by the castle featured in the drama Downton Abbey.

“We’ve seen a lot more foot traffic this time,” Kahl said. “We’ve seen a lot of new business come through this time. We’re very happy with the results here.”

I’m Sheila Long O’Mara, executive editor at Furniture Today. Throughout my 25-year career in the home furnishings industry, I have been an editor with a number of industry publications and spent a brief stint with a public relations agency where I worked with some of the industry’s leading bedding brands. I rejoined Furniture Today in December 2020 with a focus on bedding and sleep products. It’s a homecoming for me, as I was a writer and editor with Furniture Today from 1994 until 2002. I’m happy to be back and look forward to telling the important stories impacting bedding retailers and manufacturers.

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