3Z Brands has had a very busy 18 months: unveiling a new corporate identity, acquiring three brands, moving into a new facility and starting to pour foam at its Phoenix, Arizona, factory. CEO John Merwin lends insight to the company’s current strategy, new products and future plans.
Transcript
Waynette Goodson
It’s Waynette Goodson. I’m your managing editor of BedTimes magazine, and this is your edition of Take 5. We have the pleasure of having John Merwin here. He’s the CEO of 3Z brands. John, kick us off with 3Z brands. The branding is brand new. Just what all these 3Z brands encompass now brand-wise.
John Merwin
Yep, 3Z Brands is now just a house of brands. We’ve had a very busy 18 months. We’ve moved into a brand new facility. We’ve acquired three brands in that time and rebranded 3Z, and now we have a house of brands.
Waynette Goodson
House of Brands and the ones you just acquired. That’s Leesa, Nolah and Bear Bear. Okay. All right. So, when he says a house of brands, he means it. So, that’s not the only news. The other news is you are now pouring foam at your factory in Phoenix, Arizona. So talk about that.
John Merwin
Yeah. Ever since I started down the path of manufacturing, I’ve wanted to get as vertical as possible. And that started with, you know, first, it started with sewing and making our own coils. And then the last step was pouring our own foam. About six weeks ago, we started our first pours, and we’re thrilled with the way things are going.
Waynette Goodson
Right. So now talk about how that sets you apart in the bedding industry, the fact that you were pouring your own foam.
John Merwin
Yeah. To my knowledge, I don’t know if there’s another DTC brand out there that’s doing that. And so, you know, I feel like our facility definitely sets us apart in the sense that, you know, there isn’t another facility in the country that does all their own cut and sew, makes their own coils, pours their own foam. So.
Waynette Goodson
So, you’re soup to nuts. You do the whole thing.
John Merwin
Yeah, we do. We do.
Waynette Goodson
Wow. Okay, so what in the world is next for you, John?
John Merwin
We’re constantly looking at other opportunities out there, but we’re really excited for this market and all the new beds we’ve launched. We, you know, the Nolah we’ve launched a couple of new mattresses. Leesa has a couple of new mattresses. Helix has some new mattresses. So we’re thrilled to be showing all of our new products.
John Merwin
There’s a lot of opportunities in the industry right now.
Waynette Goodson
Right, Right. Well, I just got to see your 16-inch Helix Elite. Yeah, that is one luxury premium bed. And then the whole Leesa Chill collection is coming to retail stores near you. It’s not just D to C you’re looking at… Why is it important, John, talk about getting into the retailer space? And that’s kind of a new mindset now, I think, for DTC.
John Merwin
Yeah, and we’re fortunate because, in Phoenix, we have our own branded retail stores, so we’ve been able to launch Helix, Leesa, and Bear. We launched them in our stores, and we’re able to test the traffic that we can drive into those stores. And right now, retail is all about, you know, they need some traffic and all retail stores need traffic, and with the brands we have, we know that we can drive traffic into stores with our online presence, and we want to drive traffic into retailers.
John Merwin
So we’re excited to show our brands to the retailers here and know that we can drive some traffic for them.
Waynette Goodson
Wow. And we at BedTimes are excited to see all these new fans. John, congratulations on a banner year. Thank you. Thank you. And thank all of you for tuning in to this edition of Take 5. As always, you get a great night’s sleep.
