The mattress category continues to gain ground in High Point, with new players joining the market scene and major brands taking new permanent showrooms.
The entrants, including DeRucci North America, Spring Air and SweetNight, bring the number of mattress and sleep accessories exhibitors and brands at market to more than 40, giving retailers a growing offering of products to shop.
DeRucci North America, showing at 300 E. Green St., is entering the U.S. bedding market with several new AI Smart Mattresses being offered under its DeRucci Healthy Sleep Co. division. The new mattresses offer a range of features and benefits that aim to improve the sleep experience by learning how each person sleeps and responding to their body pressure and sleep position to keep the sleeper “in constant spinal alignment,” the company said.
Guy Ray, CEO of DeRucci North America, said the company is entering into a partnership with a U.S. mattress producer to make the line domestically. He said the AI line, retailing from $5,000 to $9,000 in king, will be targeted to furniture retailers. “This is an opportunity for them to get back in the game and lead,” he said.
Spring Air is rejoining the downtown High Point market scene after a 20-year absence, thanks to its recently announced mid-Atlantic licensee partnership with Dream Well, which shows in Space 205 at The Atrium on Main.
North Brunswick, New Jersey-based Dream Well, which has been showing in High Point for the past two years, is displaying three Spring Air Copper collection models and three legacy Back Supporter models.
“Spring Air represents a special opportunity for an independent mattress or furniture retailer to carry a recognized national brand to help drive traffic, sales and margin,” said Nick Bates, CEO of Spring Air International. “It is very much what many of them need in the current retail environment.”
Dream Well, which makes springs and cuts foam at its 100,000-square foot factory, warehouse and office building, is also featuring its Dream Well line, retailing from $299 to $999, at market.
Global bedding brand SweetNight Innovations is making its High Point debut with a showroom in the International Home Furnishings Center, H708. There the company is introducing Novilla by SweetNight, a retail-exclusive line for furniture and mattress stores that it is backing with its online audience to drive shoppers into stores that carry the line.
“This is a different angle from the usual mattress launch, since most brands still lean on the retailer to build the demand,” noted Yonah Lowenstein, head of sales for the U.S.
Novilla by SweetNight will only be sold through retail partners, so shoppers who find it in a store won’t find the same product online listed at a lower price. The offering features models retailing from $299 in queen to $999.
The three-layer value model at $299 offers traditional innerspring comfort and entry-level support, while the hybrid model at $399 features encased coils and gel memory foam in a five-layer design. The Cooling model at $599 has five layers and a cool-touch cover, while the Cooling Pro at $799 has six layers and graphene fabric. The $999 premium model features eight layers in a pressure-relief pillow-top design.
SweetNight Innovations, founded in 2011, has sold more than 10 million mattresses, is a major mattress supplier to Amazon and operates in more than 30 countries, the company says.
Andmore, a major showroom operator at the High Point Market, announced earlier that Serta Simmons Bedding has opened a new permanent showroom at IHFC M930 to support its Ashley dealers, and added that Tempur Sealy has done the same thing with its IHFC M925 space.
SSB is also maintaining its 10th floor IHFC showroom, which is featuring the new Skechers line this market. SSB’s ninth floor showroom features mattress lines by Serta, Beautyrest and Simmons.
Also boosting bedding’s High Point presence is South Bay International’s introduction of four mattress lines under the Corsicana banner. The American Bedding line retails from $199 to $999, while the Englander line retails from $799 to $2,999, the Tommie Copper line retails from $1,799 to $2,499, and the Winkbeds line retails from $1,999 to $3,999.
“We find High Point to be a productive market,” said Toby Konetzny, South Bay’s CEO. “We see a lot of furniture retailers here. It makes sense for us to show our full assortment here.”
Therapedic Worldwide CEO Gerry Borreggine, a longtime High Point Market exhibitor and supporter, says the mattress category remains on the ascent in High Point.
“It’s not a sharp arc upward, but it is an upward arc,” he said of the growing number of mattress exhibitors. “High Point sees a steady continuation of attention from mattress manufacturers,” he said. “Very few of them have been as supportive of High Point over the last 20 years as we have, but we continue to believe in this market. Eventually I believe it will be the primary market for mattresses.”
