Veltri to head Thomasville - Serta

June
17
2013
Vol. 37
No. 42
$15
T H E B U S I N E SS N E W S PA P E R O F T H E F U R N I T U R E I N D U S T RY
Serta extends its lead
Veltri to head Thomasville
Top producer’s sales soar 26.7%
Former Arhaus senior VP replaces Teplitz
HIGH POINT — Serta put together another stellar bedding
performance in 2012, solidifying its position as the nation’s
No. 1 bedding producer.
Serta’s soaring 26.7% sales growth last year pushed its
wholesale bedding shipments to $1.47 billion, $261 million
ahead of No. 2 Sealy, which saw its shipments rise a more
modest 7.4% last year to $1.21 billion.
see Producers, p16
Grand buys four W.Va. stores
By Clint Engel
ROANOKE, Va. — Grand Home Furnishings here is expanding its
West Virginia presence with the acquisition of four John Eye’s Big
Sandy Superstores in the state.
The deal is expected to close in August. The purchase price was
not disclosed.
Top 100 store Grand is buying showrooms in Beckley, Lewisburg,
Princeton and Summersville, W.Va., ranging from about 28,000
square feet to 60,000 square feet, said Randy Lundy, Grand’s chief
financial officer.
see Grand, p38
Culp fiscal year sales, profits up
By Jay McIntosh
HIGH POINT — Despite mixed results in the fourth quarter, fabric
supplier Culp Inc. said its fiscal year ended April 28 was “one of
the best years in the company’s history” with sales up 5.6% and
net income climbing 37.8%.
In the fourth quarter, sales were down 7% to $70.4 million against
a strong period a year ago but earnings rose 8.2% to $3.7 million.
Mattress fabric sales for the quarter were down 6% to $40.8 million,
see Culp, p39
www.furnituretoday.com
I N D E X
Bedding Today ..................22
Casual Living Report ..........12
Classifieds ..........................34
ICFF Report ........................26
Materials ConneXion .........28
Obituaries ............................8
Opinion .............................14
People Today .....................30
Selling Sleep ......................24
Staff listing.........................31
By Thomas Russell
THOMASVILLE, N.C. — Industry watchers are hopeful
that a recently announced
change in leadership at
Thomasville Fur niture
could help the brand recapture some of the market
share and floor space it has
lost in recent years.
Company parent Furniture Brands International
announced June 7 that it
was replacing former president Ed Teplitz with Kathy
Veltri, an executive with
Ohio-based retailer Arhaus
Furniture.
Veltri, who has 20-plus
years of experience in retail, is the second female
leader of the company in
recent years after Nancy
Webster, a former Target
executive who held the job
from August 2005 until fall
2007, when Teplitz came
on board.
see Thomasville, p6
Lifestyle Enterprise goes global
By Thomas Russell
HIGH POINT — With aggressive pricing and marketing,
Lifestyle Enterprise has built
a solid clientele in the United
States and says it’s using a
similar strategy to duplicate
that success in other parts of
the world.
Today the company sells
into 60 countries outside
North America. Company officials did not reveal specific
sales figures, but said that in
the six years since Lifestyle has
established its global distribu- This sectional is one of Lifestyle Enterprise’s best-selling
tion network, international footprints in Europe. Features include contemporary
see Lifestyle, p38 styling and articulating headrests.
Wayfair.com adds
boutique pages
By Clint Engel
BOSTON — Home furnishings e-commerce
giant Wayfair.com has launched an advertising program on its website, creating
boutique pages and related display ads for
suppliers of home furnishings and other
goods.
The retailer said the program is designed
both to build brand awareness for suppliers and to drive Wayfair’s consumer traffic
— visitors who are unwilling to buy big furniture items online — into bricks-and-mortar stores.
Wayfair has opened space for supplier
display ads that are strategically positioned
advertisement
SELL FULLY
CHARGED.
© 2013 Simmons Bedding Company. All rights reserved.
By David Perry
Every model in the Beautyrest® line has
been designed for recharging sleep.
Contact your sales rep to find out more.
see Wayfair.com, p2
FT001i42 1
6/13/2013 3:43:37 PM
16
FURNITURE |TODAY
www.furnituretoday.com
JUNE 17, 2013
Top Bedding Producers
Corsicana heads group chasing the Top 5
By David Perry
HIGH POINT — Promotional
bedding powerhouse Corsicana
heads the list of bedding producers chasing bedding’s Top
Five mattress makers.
Texas-based Corsicana
maintains its No. 6 ranking
on Furniture/Today’s list of the
Top 15 U.S. Bedding Producers,
once again recording a doubledigit growth year to keep it well
ahead of its nearest competitor.
Corsicana saw its wholesale
bedding shipments jump 13.2%
last year, to $206 million. That
followed a 26.4% shipment
gain in 2011. Those are estimates by Furniture/Today.
Those figures for Corsicana
do not count the branded bedding business it does with licensee partners Englander,
Spring Air and Therapedic.
Comfort Solutions remains
the No. 7 bedding producer,
with estimated shipments last
year of $150 million, a 2.6%
decline.
Therapedic successfully defends its No. 8 ranking, with
wholesale bedding shipments
last year estimated by Furniture/Today at $123 million, a
7.9% gain over the previous
year.
In the No. 9 position once
again is Englander. Furniture/
Today estimates its wholesale
bedding shipments last year at
$99 million, unchanged from
the previous year.
Moving into the Top 10 is
Restonic, whose 2012 bedding
shipments are estimated by
Furniture/Today at $85 million,
a 6.3% increase.
Slipping out of the Top 10
is Kingsdown, which had its
second consecutive year of
sales declines, according to
Furniture/Today estimates. F/T
estimated Kingsdown’s 2012
wholesale shipments at $84
million, a 4.5% decline. Kingsdown is now No. 11 on the list.
Moving into the No. 12 position is Symbol, which was No.
13 last year. Furniture/Today
estimated Symbol’s wholesale
shipments last year at $70 million, a 1.4% increase.
Spring Air dropped from No.
12 on the list to the No. 13 position, with estimated wholesale
bedding shipments last year of
$64 million, an 8.6% decline.
No. 14 is once again E.S.
Kluft and Co., which supplied
accountant-verified figures
showing wholesale bedding
shipments of $49 million last
year, a 14% increase. That figure does not include sales Kluft
contributed to Comfort Solutions, for which it is a licensee.
No. 15 is Southerland, with
2012 estimated wholesale shipments of $46 million, a 9.5%
increase.
2012 estimated U.S.
wholesale bedding shipments
in $ millions
market share
The Top five1
$4,979
Specialty sleep2
$1,240
Top 15 producers
$5,955
Total industry3
$6,825
73.0%
18.2%
87.3%
100.0%
1. Includes Serta, Sealy, Simmons, Tempur-Pedic and Select Comfort
2. Includes Tempur-Pedic and Select Comfort
3. Based on the International Sleep Products Assn. 2012 figure
Source: Furniture/Today market research
Growth in 2012
percent change in $ shipments, 2011-2012
11.4%
10.1%
X Producers
from p1
Sealy-brand shipments rose
7.9% last year to $954 million. The company’s Stearns &
Foster brand registered a 5.5%
increase, to $250 million, according to Furniture/Today estimates.
Simmons, Tempur-Pedic and
Select Comfort all maintained
their rankings as the Nos. 3, 4
and 5 producers on Furniture/
Today’s list of the Top 15 U.S.
Bedding Producers.
Serta first edged out Sealy as
the bedding industry’s top producer in 2011, finishing that
year with just a $34 million
lead over Sealy, which stood
unchallenged as the industry’s
top producer for decades until
the ascent of Serta.
Serta managed to follow up
its 18.1% sales gain in 2011,
one that was fueled by the success of its iComfort line of gel
memory foam beds, with an
even more impressive showing
in 2012, when its iSeries line of
gel memory foam and innerspring beds joined the iComfort
line in setting a sizzling sales
pace on retail floors.
The double-digit gains recorded by Serta put more distance between Serta and the rest
of the bedding pack.
No. 3 Simmons couldn’t
match the growth rates of Serta
or Sealy last year. Simmons reg-
FT016,18i42 16
8.7%
istered a 5.8% increase in its
wholesale bedding shipments,
which topped the billion dollar
mark, at $1.05 billion. That is
$419 million behind Serta, compared with a gap of $167 million the year before.
Memory foam leader Tempur-Pedic held steady in the
No. 4 position, but added just
$2 million to its bedding shipments, which rose to $882 million. That is a gain of just 0.2%,
far below the 30.2% growth rate
Tempur-Pedic achieved in 2011.
It reflects a more competitive
bedding landscape that challenges Tempur-Pedic’s growth
plans.
But Tempur-Pedic has a new
partner, Sealy, which it acquired
earlier this year. The companies
have merged into a new entity,
Tempur Sealy International,
but say that Sealy and TempurPedic will continue to operate as
independent brands.
With Serta and Simmons
both owned by Advent International (and operating as competing brands), two bedding
entities now control the top four
mattress brands.
Airbed producer Select Comfort is far behind bedding’s Big
Four, but has been on a strong
growth pace. Select Comfort,
which makes the Sleep Number line of adjustable airbeds,
saw its wholesale bedding shipments jump 18.9% last year, to
$358 million.
A year earlier, Select Com-
fort registered wholesale bedding growth of 14.9%, to $301
million. With another strong
performance last year, Select
Comfort was one of a handful
of top producers to record two
consecutive years of doubledigit growth.
Bedding’s Top Five producers dominate the bedding
landscape, accounting for 73%
of total industry shipments,
pegged at $6.83 billion by the
International Sleep Products
Assn.
5.0%
Top 15
producers
Total
industry1
The Top
five2
Specialty
sleep3
1. Based on the International Sleep Products Assn. 2011 and 2012
figures
2. Includes Serta, Sealy, Simmons, Tempur-Pedic and Select Comfort
3. Includes Tempur-Pedic and Select Comfort
Source: Furniture/Today market research
Share of U.S. bedding shipments
2012
Other
producers
12.8%
2011*
Other
producers
13.8%
Serta
21.6%
Remaining
Top 15 producers
14.3%
Sealy
17.8%
5.2%
Serta
18.5%
Remaining
Top 15 producers
15.0%
Sealy
18.0%
4.8%
Tempur-Pedic
Simmons
12.9%
15.4%
Select Comfort
87.2%
Top 15 producers
Source: Furniture/Today market research
Tempur-Pedic
14.0%
Simmons
15.9%
Select Comfort
86.2%
Top 15 producers
*Based on the International Sleep Products Assn.’s
revised 2011 total of $6.28 billion.
6/12/2013 3:25:03 PM
18
FURNITURE |TODAY
www.furnituretoday.com
JUNE 17, 2013
Top Bedding Producers
Top 15 U.S. bedding producers
Rank
1
Rank
last
year
1
Company
Serta
Estimated U.S. wholesale
bedding shipments in $ millions
2012
2011
$1,473
Percent
change
2011 to 2012
$1,163
26.7%
Includes sales allowances and incentives of $66 million in 2012 and $57 million in 2011.
2
2
Sealy
$1,212
$1,129
7.4%
Includes shipments of its Sealy, Stearns & Foster and Bassett Bedding brands and shipments from its single licensee,
Sealy Mattress Co. of New Jersey. Sales for Stearns & Foster were estimated at $250 million in 2012. Also includes sales
allowances and incentives of $123 million in 2012 and $119 million in 2011.
3
3
Simmons
$1,054
$996
5.8%
Includes sales allowances and incentives of $144 million in 2012 and $143 million in 2011. Excludes crib mattress
sales.
4
4
Tempur-Pedic
$882
$880
0.2%
Includes sales allowances and incentives of $107 million in 2012 and $70 million in 2011.
5
5
Select Comfort
$358
$301
18.9%
6
6
Corsicanae
$206
$182
13.2%
Excludes shipments from branded business with licensee partners, Englander, Spring Air and Therapedic.
7
7
Comfort Solutionse $150
$154
-2.6%
8
8
Therapedice
$123
$114
7.9%
9
9
Englandere
$99
$99
0.0%
10
11
Restonice
$85
$80
6.3%
11
10
Kingsdowne
$84
$88
-4.5%
12
13
Symbole
$70
$69
1.4%
13
12
Spring Aire
$64
$70
-8.6%
14
14
E.S. Kluft
$49
$43
14.0%
15
15
Southerlande
$46
$42
9.5%
$5,955
$5,410
10.1%
Top 15 total
Rankings are by estimated U.S. wholesale bedding shipments. All figures for calendar 2012 and 2011. All sales information,
except for that supplied by publicly held companies that break out U.S. wholesale bedding shipments or companies that
provide accountant verified or audited figures, are Furniture/Today market research estimates. Figures exclude shipments to
Puerto Rico and include sales allowances, incentives and cash discounts. Figures have been rounded to the nearest million.
e=Furniture/Today estimate
Source: Furniture/Today market research
FT016,18i42 18
Methodology
for ranking
top bedding
producers
HIGH POINT — Furniture/Today uses public and private information to develop the
wholesale shipment figures in its report of
the Top 15 U.S. Bedding Producers.
The newspaper begins the process by
sending a survey to some two dozen bedding producers, asking them to supply audited or accountant-verified figures for their
2012 bedding shipments.
Three leading bedding producers — Sealy,
Tempur-Pedic and Select Comfort — were
publicly held last year and supplied shipment figures to Furniture/Today.
Sealy provided its total U.S. shipments
figure, which was $1.21 billion. Furniture/
Today estimates that Sealy-brand bedding
accounts for $954 million of that total and
posted a 7.9% increase over the previous
year, while Bassett Bedding-branded shipments were $8 million, unchanged from
the previous year. F/T estimates that Stearns
& Foster shipments grew 5.5% last year, to
$250 million.
Two other leading producers — Simmons
and Serta, both owned by Advent International, a private equity firm — supplied accountant-verified reports of audited figures.
Only one other producer on the Top 15
list — No. 14 E.S. Kluft & Co. — supplied
accountant-verified figures.
Together, those six companies represent
84% of the Top 15 and 74% of the industry.
The remaining producers on the list —
Corsicana, Comfort Solutions, Therapedic,
Englander, Restonic, Kingsdown, Symbol,
Spring Air and Southerland — are ranked
on the basis of a Furniture/Today survey of
bedding producers and suppliers.
All bedding producers are told that if they
can’t supply accountant-verified or audited
figures, Furniture/Today will use its industry
survey to estimate their shipments.
The newspaper takes all of the estimates
it receives and averages them to arrive at
the shipment estimates for the producers
that did not supply accountant-verified or
audited figures. Those figures are labeled as
estimates in the list of the Top 15 U.S. Bedding Producers.
Executive Editor David Perry and Dana
French, director of research, collected the figures presented in this report, developed the
estimates, and did the market analysis.
The figure for the size of the mattress industry — $6.83 billion — is from the International Sleep Products Assn.
6/12/2013 3:25:04 PM