Profile on Kingsdown’s
CEO, Eric Hinshaw
By: Dale T. Read
Publisher and Editor-in-Chief
In the spring issue of
BEDROOM Magazine, we launched a new feature for our
retail readers called the Publisher’s Interview,
presenting the insights, opinions and comments of CEO’s
and general management of bedding products manufacturers
and suppliers. We are pleased to offer in this summer
issue our second interview with W. Eric Hinshaw,
Chairman and CEO of Kingsdown, Inc., of Mebane, NC.
 In some ways Eric Hinshaw is the quintessential southern
gentleman having been born and raised in the Piedmont.
He shared that his family was settled in North Carolina
even before it was a state. Hinshaw attended and
graduated from Duke University and for many years has
served as the Chairman and CEO of Kingsdown, Inc.
located in the tree-lined, sleepy ( but very fast
growing) town of Mebane, North Carolina. Hinshaw is a
cultivated, extremely well-groomed professional man who
strikes one who meets him as having a respect for things
that are old and traditional. After all, his office is
situated in the upstairs corner of a turn of the last
century brick factory building, which like so many North
Carolina textile and home furnishings plants is located
along the railroad tracks in the center of the village.
Yet despite his sense of roots, tradition and style, it
is a mistake to assume that this man is anything but a
visionary, a pioneer, an international business leader,
and a creative, forward thinker.
A guest gets a quick impression that this man is not
only practical, but knows how to motivate and build
success through non-traditional thinking. On the way to
lunch Hinshaw offers to drive, and leads his guest
across the parking lot to his automobile, which is
parked way out among the cars of the factory employees.
He turns to this reporter and says, “One thing I can’t
stand is executive parking,” taking a direct jab at the
old perk or privilege exercised by so many status
conscious executives. “It sends the wrong signal. We all
have jobs to do here. No one is more important or more
privileged than any one else here. We’re all part of the
Kingsdown team. We do different jobs and have different
responsibilities, but everyone is important in our
company family.”
As soon as he says this, the reporter asks about the
company ownership. As Hinshaw begins a tour of the very
traditional downtown Mebane, he responds with an answer
to this question that is anything but traditional, “Well
80% of Kingsdown is owned by its employees and the other
20% is owned by members of the founders’ family.”
Hinshaw makes the point that when employees own a piece
of the company, they are working for themselves, they
are motivated and they feel as if the company name and
its products are a reflection on them and their own
name. So here is this company founded in 1904 as the
Mebane Bedding Company located in a small town with a
main street in the rural Piedmont, but is 80% owned by
its employees and is directed by a man who is a a true
motivator.
Over a simple lunch and traditional iced tea at a local
diner, Hinshaw shares that his son, Lee who heads up
Kingsdown’s ever expanding international export program
informed his father that he had spent more time with him
in recent months in five different countries in the
Pacific Rim/Asia than he had at home. This is because
Kingsdown is engaged in a very pro-active program of
exporting premium and ultra-premium beds to countries
all over the world. In fact Hinshaw informs BEDROOM
Magazine that Kingsdown currently exports to over 22
countries overseas including China, and that Japan and
Australia are the company’s two largest export
countries.
Earlier in the day Julie Swanner, Marketing Director for
Kingsdown informed this reporter that in many ways the
company had become the “poster child” of North
Carolina-based companies exporting to China and other
foreign nations. Hinshaw says his company has learned
from the mistakes and the experiences of other companies
who have sought to export goods to foreign countries.
“We’ve learned from their experiences and mistakes as
well as our own. Today we are successfully doing what it
takes to export overseas.” Kingsdown also works closely
with the University of North Carolina as well as the
Department of Commerce in the areas of research,
training and export programs. The amazing thing is that
this is a home furnishings or bedding products company
as opposed to a high technology, medical technology or
biotechnology company.
A key part of Kingsdown’s success, both domestically and
overseas, comes from the fact that the company focuses
on higher-end bedding and that the “Sleep To Live”
positioning for the brand is more than marketing.
Swanner tells BEDROOM Magazine that the average price
point for a Kingsdown Sleep System is $2000, and that
the company dominates an estimated 50% of the ultra
premium bedding market in the US.
Kingsdown really is different from the competition in
the US and the worldwide market according to Hinshaw.
“We recognize that people are not built the same,” says
Hinshaw, “We have invested millions and millions of
dollars in research and development to create our
DormoDiagnostics® measurement systems for our retailers
to offer individualized beds for health conscious
consumers. Our customers are people who are really
looking for the right bed to help them sleep better in
order to live better.”
Hinshaw goes on to make the point that Kingsdown designs
and crafts hand-made, higher end innerspring mattresses
and box springs with the goal of creating a superior
product that offers excellent sleep for individual
customers. “We are not component focused,” says Hinshaw.
Naturally Kingsdown is completely aware of, and makes
full use of all the latest technologies in latex,
visco-elastic foam, various natural and synthetic
fibers, the latest fire barriers and tickings as well as
superior coil construction and other components. But the
company does not sell components. It sells
individualized sleep solutions based on diagnostic
measurement for consumers looking for a hand-crafted,
higher end mattress and box spring that will mean better
sleep, improved health and better living.
The truth is, that based on this visit alone, this
reporter could write three articles on Kingsdown, but
this column is primarily about Hinshaw and his
leadership. Since the subject of health and living well
is foremost on the mind of this corporate leader, we
could not close this column without mentioning the “Free
Wellness Program” offered by Kingsdown to its employees.
When Hinshaw had the new $4 million, 100,000 square foot
factory built on the other side of Mebane, he had them
construct a training room, a fitness gymnasium and a
nurse’s clinic to monitor the health of Kingsdown
employees. Under the direction of a corporate nurse,
employees receive fitness evaluations, screenings,
healthy cooking classes, yoga, and counseling and other
preventative and remedial programs. The entire plant is
a modern state-of-art manufacturing facility but, the in
many ways, Mr.Hinshaw’s philosophy of employee
participation and ownership is best reflected in the
modern Kingsdown fitness center and the free medical
services offered at the new plant.
Retailers interested in learning more about Kingsdown
and the company’s research driven “Sleep To Live”
individualized sleep systems are invited to contact the
corporate headquarters at:
1-800-800-1353
www.kingsdown.com
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