This mattress chain is really proving to be a giant in the industry, as it opens two more new stores in the country. These new locations would have to be Mattress Giant’s 26th opening for this year alone, and the 360th for the whole company.

‘Reaching the 360 store mark and the addition of these new locations in Orlando and Houston underlines the continued consumer demand for our product line-up and customer service,’ said Barrie Brown, President and CEO of Mattress Giant. ‘After 25 years of delivering a comfortable mattress buying experience to consumers, we know that our convenient and accessible neighborhood locations mean that consumers don’t have to drive far from home to get a great deal on a quality mattress.’

The two brances are located at Phillips Crossing shopping center at 8015 Turkey Lake Road, Orlando, FL 32819 and at Shoppes at Fry Road at 26321 Northwest Highway (290), Houston, TX 77429

As usual, Mattress Giant retails stores offer a variety of mattress products like Sealy, Simmons, Serta, Tempur-Pedic, Simmons ComforPedic, Airsprung, Casa Cristina Collection and more.

Via Forbes Magazine

The economic crunch is affecting every part of the world and in Mumbai, India, price hikes on raw materials for mattresses aren’t exempt. According to this report, there have been two rounds of price increases for mattresses in the months of June and July of this year, with profits unexpectedly only gaining 15-20%. This development leaves mattress companies no choice but to increase prices of their products.

Prices of mattress seem to be going in only one direction, northwards. This is because of the surge in raw material costs. After nearly 6% hike in June, prices have gone up by another 7% in July. This two rounds of hike have increased the price of a regular size (78”X60”) of mattress to Rs 8,560-8,800 a piece. The premium range mattresses are now priced at Rs 17,500-Rs 26,045.

Global prices of latex, cotton and polyester - the main raw materials for mattresses - have gone up in the past few months. Latex prices went up by 60% while prices of cotton grew by 20% in the last two months. Prices of polyester also surged by 25% in the same period.

The combined price rise of raw materials has affected the profit margins of the industry by 15-20% in last three months, experts said.

The popular mattress brands such as Kurl-On, Sleepwell and Springwel have raised prices of their products to neutralise the spiralling cost of raw materials. Kurl-On chairman and managing director Sudhakar Pai said: “We kept our prices under control for a few months. But now we are forced to increase the prices as the rising raw material costs have been affecting our bottomlines.” Kurl-On is the market leader with a 40% share, marginally ahead of Sleepwell, of the Rs 1,000 crore organised market.

Industry experts said the profitability of the mattress companies are still under pressure, leaving room for further price hike. “Our profitability has gone down by 10% even after we raised prices in July,” said Kurl-On chief marketing officer G Sivaram.

The peculiarity of the industry is that price hike by any of the three major players is normally followed by the others, said Mansuk Shah, a long-time dealer.

Via Economic Times India

Here’s an interesting piece from Furniture Today which tackles on the power of advertising in business, especially in the mattress retail industry.

Speaking before a group of retailers last May, advertising executive Jon Parks says that mattress stores “shouldn’t shortchange their advertising programs” as research have proven that even with today’s economic climate all over America, companies who cut on their advertising budget are “outperformed” by those who don’t.

The report also assessed trends in online marketing, specifically, shopping for mattresses on the internet, to which Parks noted:

60% of consumers have used the Internet to do product research. So retailers need to leverage their strengths — the “bricks” of their stores — with the clicks that consumers will be making online to learn more about mattresses.

How can retailers beef up their advertising in today’s trend? More tips may be found here.

While other companies are struggling with keeping earnings steady in the current economic climate, raising their end product to cover costs, Five Star Mattress is actually considering cutting back the prices of their mattresses by as much as 32%, in an effort to be more competitive.

Says Five Star Mattress’ President, Donna Zett — “This is not a temporary rollback, but new, more competitive pricing that will rock the industry, providing higher margins for dealers than was ever thought possible. We are making a big push to gain additional business. We are the only producer in the industry that is lowering prices. We’ve got six months’ of experience under our belt. We know where the balance of our mix is. We can target the right prices at the popular price points.”

Five Star Mattresses are priced between $299 to $999. It is perhaps setting a new trend in the industry.

“We are making a statement. We are looking out for our dealers.” Zett adds.

Via Furniture Today

For the second quarter of this year, mattress manufacturer, Sealy Corporation has reported a 26% dropped in its earnings domestically. This decline has attributed to the rising cost of materials as well as the decline of sales.

The company also says it has lost some major distribution accounts as some furniture stores have closed operations due to the current economic conditions.

International sales meanwhile continue to increase.

“The U.S. mattress retail environment deteriorated during the second quarter of 2008, impacting our ability to drive domestic sales volumes. Looking ahead, we expect our second-half performance to be challenging as industry trends weakened further in June and retail traffic remains soft. “ - Larry Rogers, Sealy’s interim chief executive of North America.

Via Forbes