Working with mattress producers to create custom lines can improve your profit margins and give consumers a reason to choose you over a competitor. We look at how to make such programs work best.
Though you can choose from thousands of mattress models offered by bedding manufacturers, sometimes you can’t find the particular construction, step-up
program or price points you want to offer your customers. That’s a good time to explore the creation of a private-label line.
That’s what Margaret Wright did when she couldn’t find latex mattresses in the configurations and price points her customers wanted. Partnering with AW Mattresses in Landover, Maryland, she developed the seven-bed Naptown line for her two Mattress Store locations in Annapolis, Maryland, and Chester, Maryland.
Mark’s Mattress had a similar problem, albeit with a different type of mattress, and solved it by working with Greenville, Florida-based Compass Sleep Products.
“There was a particular section on our sales floor that was underperforming, so we brought in one promotional model, in three comfort levels, from Compass Sleep Products as a test locally. It performed so well, that in less than three months, we are now carrying that model in all 15 of our stores,” Cris Brunson, vice president of the Indianapolis-based retailer said at the time of the rollout late last year. The retailer, which has locations in Indiana, Kentucky and Tennessee, has a robust private-label program, marketed under its own Sleep Natural brand.
Going big, Miskelly Furniture + Mattresses, based in Pearl, Mississippi, unveiled a broad, three-collection private-label line in partnership with Diamond Mattress about 18 months ago. “There were so many things that made this work, but the symmetry between our business and Diamond made a lot of sense,” Caleb Miskelly, chief retail officer, said about the launch. Miskelly Sleep includes a wide variety of feels, profiles and price points.
The Benefits of Private-Label Mattresses
“This is a really opportune time for private label,” says Nivara Xaykao, director of culture and consumer insights for New York City-based trend forecasting and consumer insights firm FS.
“… There’s this perception of getting greater value for your money when it comes to … store brands. Also, because these brands don’t seem as commercialized, there’s this immediate feeling of trust and intimacy,” she says. “And I think as the ones who most directly interact with consumers, retailers are really in the perfect position to understand their needs and to serve their needs throughout the house line.”
There’s a lot to be said for private-label lines: They can have higher margins, they give you exclusive product in your market and, even if your custom line is at the high end of your offerings, shoppers may see those mattresses as providing a better value than comparably priced products. Private-label programs also allow you to craft the line you’ve always wanted to carry — and that’s no small thing.
“There are many benefits to a private-label collection, including exclusivity; they are creating a mattress that no one else can get,” says Jared Carlitz, CEO of Bedding Industries of America, a mattress manufacturer based in North Brunswick, New Jersey. “Through working with BIA, the retailer is able to have more creative input over the lineup based on the needs of the local market and what consumers are requesting, which allows that retailer to offer a truly unique product assortment.”
As chair of Mebane, North Carolina-based bedding producer Kingsdown, Mike James says “creating a private-label product line is one of my favorite processes.”
“Manufacturers of most products think they know retail, and we believe that we know enough to develop product for retailers, but the retailers know their customers better than anyone,” James says. “It’s a collaborative process, and while we offer a menu of products, we are wide open to suggestions and feedback.”
Producers say there is growing retailer interest in private-label lines. This is especially true at the higher end of the market, says David Binke, CEO of mattress producer and licensing group King Koil, which has headquarters in Avondale, Arizona.
“Retailers see that the luxury mattress consumer is not as negatively affected by the economy as other demographic groups and they want to add more upscale product to their floors to meet that market demand,” Binke says. “While they are adding additional King Koil SKUs, as well, we are also seeing a trend where they want to create a private-label line where they curate their own product and even increase their margins a bit.”
To better service its expanding private-label business, Spring Air International has increased its capabilities to directly ship those beds to retailers’ customers.
“We can reduce their inventory and ship retailer- branded, private-label product directly to their customer, saving them time and money,” says Nick Bates, president and CEO of the Woburn, Massachusetts-based licensing group. “We are embedded with FedEx across our factory network now, with its trucks visiting plants daily for pickups.”
Determining Your Readiness for a Private-Label Mattress Line
Could you benefit from a private-label line? Manufacturers who work with retailers to help create such collections say there are a number of factors that make a retailer a good candidate to have success with such a program.
“The first thing a retailer must consider is the strength of its store brand in the marketplace,” Bates says. “Is it strong and trusted enough to drive traffic via advertising and your own website, without the support of co-branding with a national brand?”
Carlitz agrees that to succeed with private label, being an established retailer helps: “A retailer that has developed a strong local customer base and has a well-known brand is positioned to thrive with a private-label lineup, where their trusted name is the centerpiece of the collection.”
With your own consumer research in hand, here are some things you’ll need to consider when developing your private-label line:
- What price points are you aiming to hit?
- What features are important to include in the line? (Cooling? Heavy-duty durability? Sustainability?)
- What components and constructions do you want to include? (All-foam? Hybrid? Boxed beds? Adjustable friendly?)
- What image are you trying to convey and how do you want the beds to look? (Panel fabric? Border fabric? Handles? Labels?)
- What color palette do you prefer?
The quality and skill of your retail sales associates is also key. They need to feel comfortably equipped to promote mattresses that don’t automatically carry the reputation of a national brand.
Bob Naboicheck, CEO of independent bedding producer Gold Bond, based in Hartford, Connecticut, notes that it takes well-trained and effective RSAs to sell a private-label line, in part, because “over the years, we’ve found that consumers can be suspect of a private-label line as compared to well-known brands.”
“I believe the bread and butter of any investment in a private-label line for a retailer boils down to whether their RSAs are of the right caliber to be selling against more established brands,” Naboicheck says. “They will have to field consumer questions and be knowledgeable about how to differentiate the product from other beds on the floor. Consumers want to know what is different, what is new and why the product they are buying is better than the rest — and that information depends on the sales associates and their comfort with presenting the program.”
Private-label lines are partnerships between retailers and manufacturers that go beyond their typical relationships. And, because of that, Bates says Spring Air focuses on developing custom lines with retailers who carry other Spring Air products.
“We don’t want to just be your private-label source. We want to make sure you have a core business with Spring Air before we’ll talk about private label,” he says. “Because the products are being built in one of our 12 facilities across the country, your private-label models are delivered on the same truck as your existing Spring Air goods, which makes shipping faster and more efficient. We do a lot of private-label business with great partners, but that’s because we’re only interested in true partnerships to begin with.”
The Process of Developing a Private-Label Mattress Line
In terms of process, manufacturers say the development of private-label lines is a collaboration. Retailers contribute their expertise in terms of what their customers want and what their own goals for the line are; producers offer options and guidance to create the most profitable products.
“We take pride in our process, starting with taking the time to meet with the retailer — usually here in our Connecticut headquarters — to review our line and explore how we can deliver a product that combines all the benefits they are looking for,” Naboicheck says. “We discuss whether they are looking for a value offering or a more high-end story. At Gold Bond, we are dedicated to creating a private-label lineup that is better than the rest, regardless of the price point.”
Kingsdown, James says, has people on its team who work closely with retailers on private-label lines. “We develop the strategy around their request and, with experts like Dave Ballentine and Dave Brummet on the product development team, we’re very good at getting the feel right with a little bit of input,” James says. “They are outstanding at putting programs together and working with the retailer to understand exactly what they want.”
Bringing Your Private-Label Mattresses to Market
Creating a private-label line may take less time than you imagine. Some manufacturers say they can produce a collection in a few months.
“Coordinating with the retailer, we’re able to put together a private-label mattress to fit their needs quickly, and they can expect the mattress in stores within a month to a month and a half,” Naboicheck says. “We have a very fast turnaround time.” In addition to manufacturing the mattresses, Gold Bond will train RSAs so they can comfortably answer shoppers’ questions about the new line.
BIA operates on a similar time frame, though Carlitz notes that customized details like branded covers may take a bit longer. “We pride ourselves on our innovation and our speed of communication and, given that BIA is family operated, it means our retailers have direct access to our leadership team, including myself and Phil Carlitz, our COO,” Jared Carlitz says. “We are directly involved in developing new products, including private label, which helps to accelerate the process.”
At Kingsdown, the process takes “less than four months if the retailer knows what they want and is ready to make a change,” James says. Having factories across the United States helps speed up the process of getting beds on store floors, he notes.
Considering the entire scope of the project — from making space for a new line to initial brainstorming to mattresses arriving on the showroom floor — creating a private-label line takes about eight months, Bates says.
“First, they must make space on their floor to accommodate the private-label program. It usually takes anywhere from two to three months for a retailer to clear out a SKU and, generally speaking, when we’re talking about private label, we’re not talking about producing one bed, but five or six. It takes time to make that happen,” Bates says. “… Following the initial meeting, we’ll come back in 30 days with rendering specifications and fabric swatches. That too takes time because creating a single fabric sample can add up to three weeks to the process. Once there is agreement on the program, we gear up for production. We create the raw material supply chain, ordering fabrics, foam and other raw materials necessary to support the program.”
And all that means that if you’d like to add a private-label line to your stores in 2025, there’s plenty of time to do so. It starts by dreaming of what could be with a trusted manufacturing partner.
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