By: Dale T. Read, Editor-in-Chief

Back around 1995 or so, innerspring or conventional American bedding companies viewed specialty sleep products largely as a smaller almost irrelevant niche market with all specialty categories (water, air, futons, foams, adjustable beds, and latex) representing perhaps 10% of all mattress/box spring sales in the US. Then two heavily financed companies decided to direct market sell air beds and visco-elastic, the NASA developed "Swedish Memory Foam" beds, over the air to millions of Americans. Using national and then local radio personalities, direct television, hotel showrooms and mall locations, these companies sold their wares not through furniture, department stores, bedding stores and specialty sleep shops, but directly through their known distribution channels. Millions of dollars of direct market advertising woke up thousands upon thousands of Americans to the fact that they could sleep on something other than innerspring mattresses. The rest is history. Over the next ten years the specialty category took off, so much so that today it is estimated that 22 percent of all bedding sales are in the specialty category.

While the two direct marketing companies gained great visibility through customer brand awareness, as well as growth and market share, and they also helped to change the entire American mattress marketing landscape over the past ten years, they were not the only mattress/sleep companies to develop and create specialty products.

Simmons, a leading brand in mattresses, had always shown a propensity towards innovation from the early days with its then proprietary Beautyrest^® pocketed coil^™ (the bowling ball bed), and then its BackCare^® (remember "5 Zones for Your Bones^™"), and for years the company developed licensee relationships with companies that manufactured airbeds, adjustable beds, futons, and latex or foam beds. The Number 2 American mattress brand became known for seeking to develop better products or marketing ideas that would bring science, performance and quality to the American consumer (the "No-Flip" Beautyrest 2000^™). Still, all in all, and even up until very recently, Simmons has kept its focus primarily on the development of Beautyrest or BackCare lines sometimes with visco-elastic or latex or other health and comfort features, creating a broad product line in order to achieve the company’s goal of "competing at all price points." Some have suggested that Simmons was more or less simply dipping their company toe into the water. However they are about to take a full plunge into the specialty sleep waters with a new swimming coach: a partner whose experience, technology and innovation in foam bedding will allow Simmons to embark on its commitment to deliver best-in-class products in a range of categories, including latex, and memory foam, while adhering to Simmon’s unwavering standard of quality and marketing excellence.

Comfor Products, Inc. (known to the industry as Comfor-Pedic) was founded in 1946 as Industrial Rubber & Supply, Inc. In 2006, the company changed its name to Comfor Products to reflect its emphasis on the foam mattress product category. Drawing on Comfor Products’ more than 60 years of foam expertise in healthcare and aviation, Comfor-Pedic products utilize patented innovations that position the company at the forefront of the visco industry. Headquartered in Seattle, Comfor Products also operates manufacturing and back-office facilities in Portland, Oregon and High Point, North Carolina.

On June 26th at a gathering of top dealers and members of the industry press, Simmons Bedding Company announced that it had signed a purchase agreement to acquire the Comfor-Pedic^® line of memory foam mattresses and pillows from Comfor Products, Inc. The acquisition is seamlessly merging the most advanced memory foam technology with the strength of the Simmons^® brand, giving consumers and retailers a superior product from a company they know and trust. The acquisition of the Comfor-Pedic line positions Simmons squarely in the middle of a growing market and rounds out the company’s specialty sleep portfolio, which is anchored currently by the Simmons^® Natural Care^™ line of latex mattresses.

"Manufacturing and selling foam mattresses has its own unique set of characteristics, which is why we’re excited about the addition of the Comfor-Pedic team’s expertise to our capabilities set," said Charlie Eitel, Simmons chairman and chief executive officer. "We look forward to leveraging Comfor-Pedic’s more than 60 years of foam product innovation across our visco and latex offerings."

Comfor-Pedic CEO Scott Smalling said, "Simmons’ rich history of innovation and its strong corporate culture reflect our company’s values, which make this union a natural fit. Comfor-Pedic’s advanced memory foam technology and other first-to-market innovations, combined with Simmons’ iconic brand and retail distribution network, will give consumers and retailers the best of both worlds. We look forward to going to market as a unified force."

Butch Webster, 30-year industry veteran and Comfor-Pedic executive vice president, predicts that the Comfor-Pedic line will give Simmons a decisive edge in this market. "There is incredible potential in the market for a memory foam bed with superior performance characteristics, which is why I joined the company in 2005 after seeing what product features Scott and his team had designed," said Webster. "With that in mind, I also knew that a match between Comfor-Pedic’s foam expertise and the manufacturing and distribution strengths of an industry leader would be incredibly powerful. I believe that we have found the perfect partner in Simmons to take this category to the next level."