In a recent conversation about omnichannel retail with Larry Wu, CEO of tech solutions company GigaCloud, he said that a brand is stronger than a retailer alone.
What he meant is that if a retailer becomes a brand with exclusive products, they can expand beyond their physical stores and grow online and elsewhere.
As I’ve researched the growth of private label in the bedding industry, it’s becoming increasingly valuable to retailers who can build an exclusive brand that people trust.
“Retailers should absolutely be innovative and develop products that support their own brand and business strategy,” said Frank Hood, CEO of Kingsdown. “A strong house brand can be a valuable part of the assortment. But much of the innovation in this industry has always come from strong partnerships between retailers and manufacturers. These are partnerships built over years, not just transactions.
He adds that he doesn’t accept the premise that private label growth has to come at the expense of established brands like Kingsdown.
“The key point is that this should not be viewed as private label versus branded product,” he explained. “The healthiest model is one where retailer brands and established manufacturer brands can coexist, each playing a role in building a stronger mattress business. What we want to avoid is commoditization. If the category becomes only about price, specs, and margin, everyone loses something. Strong brands matter, strong retailers matter, and strong partnerships between the two are what continue to move this industry forward.”
Legends Bedding is only making private label mattress lines now, and it has expanded its customer base by focusing on this category.
It keeps this list quiet—even hiding the mattress in a secret back room for VIPs only—but its main private label partnership with Pillowcube is public and gaining steam.
“The private label category has always had interest and demand,” said Brady Rice, VP of products at Legends. “Brand power is unique in the furniture industry because it’s primarily within the industry. Rarely are consumers going into a store clamoring for Legends-branded furniture—although it has happened. But, mainly, private label gives the retailer a sort of exclusivity and control that they wouldn’t have if they went with a bigger brand.”
He adds that for mattresses and bedding there is demand for private label, but it’s typically the medium or higher retailer that is the ideal target.
Gold Bond Mattress has also seen success with private label recently, saying that stronger independent dealers are increasingly private label mattress programs that generate higher profits.
“Stronger dealers understand that they are the brand in their markets,” said Gold Bond CEO Bob Naboicheck. “They are leaning into that strategy by teaming with us to create unique branded products that differentiate them in the region and offer higher margins. It’s a win/win strategy. The dealer benefits, as do we.”
Gold Bond President Skip Naboicheck has been working with dealers from Maine to the Carolinas to implement successful private label programs.
We bear the burden of the costs to develop the brand, working closely with the dealer to curate internal components and ticking to create something special and unique for their customers,” Skip said. “With the breadth of our collections, from value to luxury, we have tremendous bandwidth to give the dealer the products they need to reach every type of consumer.
One of those dealers is Surfside Casual, a full-service home furnishings and design chain based in Somers Point, N.J. who wanted to reimagine their bedding department. Under the leadership of industry veteran Ken Mazda, each of the chain’s five South Jersey stores offers a private label lineup that is exclusively comprised of 14 Gold Bond mattresses.
Mazda is an industry veteran who built Nationwide Discount Sleep Centers into a 60-store Philadelphia-area chain he later sold to Mattress Giant and then led business development as vice president of 1-800 Mattress.
“Our decision to private label its mattress offering with Gold Bond was the right one for our stores and our customers,” he said. “We’re making more margin, and even though we are a small independent chain, we are not treated as one by the manufacturer. They are incredibly responsive to us and when we place an order on Monday, it arrives by Thursday like clockwork.
