Hartford Business Journal

16 Hartford Business Journal • January 15, 2018 • www.HartfordBusiness.com By Gregory Seay gseay@HartfordBusiness.com S ome of America's leading bed- ding makers are waking up to the time and cost savings from centralizing mattress manu- facturing in Greater Hartford, making it logistically easier and cheaper to ship finished sleepware to customers. Their timing couldn't better, bedding experts say, as the improving U.S. economy puts more folks back to work and the recent federal tax cuts fatten consumers' wal- lets for splurging on homes, cars and their never-ending quest for a good night's sleep. Corsicana Mattress Co. of Texas, among the 10 largest bedding makers in the U.S., has leased 212,000 square feet of the for- mer Fafnir Manufacturing plant in New- ington Business Park, to begin mattress production by Feb. 1, at the earliest, said Andrew Brecher, Newington's economic development director. A Corsicana official said the company, which is investing $6 million to $8 million alone in mattress-making equipment for its 11th U.S. manufacturing facility — and its first of potentially more in New England — plans to ramp up to 150 to 160 staffers in two shifts as quickly as possible. Shelbourne Global Solutions LLC is Corsi- cana's landlord. A year ago, billion-dollar mat- tress giant Serta Simmons Bedding LLC began develop- ing a production facility at 140 Old County Circle, in Windsor Locks, to move bedding production and about 200 new or relocated jobs from its nearby plant in Agawam, Mass. The state of Con- necticut pledged $8 million to assist Serta Simmons with its expansion and relocation. Corsicana's and Serta Simmons' ex- pansions also serve to reinforce growing demand for warehouse-distribution space in central Connecticut, which has emerged as a vital trans-shipment corridor for in- and out- of-state manufacturers, overnight parcel/ freight haulers like United Parcel Service, FedEx and Roadway, and fulfillment/logistics operators such as Amazon and 3PL. Both mattress giants compete against a smaller, well-established Connecticut bedding maker — Gold Bond Mattress in Hartford's North End. Also, East Windsor is home to a Northeast production outpost for Illinois' Blue Bell Mattress Co., maker of King Koil brand bedding. Gold Bond and Blue Bell plan to sig- nificantly expand their brands in 2018, industry observers say. The Connecticut Department of Labor counts six bedding makers in the state, employing 326 in 2016 vs. 296 in 2011. "The fact that two of the top 10 bedding producers have chosen Hart- ford-area locations for new bedding plants speaks to the Northeast growth plans that both of those producers are pursuing,'' said Da- vid Perry, bedding editor at Furniture Today, which first reported Corsi- cana's Connecticut expansion. Domestic bedding U.S. mattress production and sales have soared in recent years. Manufacturers shipped more than 41 million mattress and foundation units in 2016, up 3.1 percent from 2015, according to the International Sleep Products Association (ISPA). It was the seventh straight annual increase in units shipped since 2010, but still below the industry's 2005 peak, the Alexandria, Va., trade group said. 2017 mattress sales were also expected to be higher. Along with household consumers, hotels/ motels, hospitals, nursing homes and other institutional-care providers are a lucrative market for mattress makers because, aside from the sheer volume of bedding they need, they replace them more often, experts say. According to bedding makers and indus- try analysts, mattresses and boxsprings are among the few consumer products largely made and sold in the U.S. If you've ever turned a mattress or helped move one into a home, it's easy to see why. "It's a reality,'' said ISPA President Ryan Trainer. "We're dealing with a bulky, rela- tively light product that's difficult to handle.'' Among bedding makers, it's generally accepted, Trainer said, that mattress plants located no more than 500 miles away from their most distant customers can most ef- ficiently distribute their products. Transportation, or more precisely truck- ing companies and their associated fuel and labor costs, are one of the more onerous expenses associated with bedding produc- tion, said Bob Naboicheck, whose family has owned Hartford's Gold Bond since 1899. The bedding industry is close knit, and Naboicheck said Corsicana searched for some time for a production site closer to New England than its nearest plant in central Pennsylvania. Corsicana is a high-volume mattress maker with 2016 sales of $385 million (No. 6 in the U.S.) and a major supplier Big Awakening Bullish U.S. mattress makers choose Greater Hartford as Northeast logistics hub Hartford bedding maker Gold Bond Mattress is seeing larger bedding manufacturers open production plants in central Connecticut, to be nearer to their customers. "Shipping always has been costly. Most manufacturers have plants no more than a day's drive to major mattress customers.'' Bob Naboicheck , President, Hartford-based Gold Bond PHOTO | CONTRIBUTED

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