Simmons plant tops $100M mark
By David Perry -- Furniture Today, May 10, 2004
JANESVILLE, Wis. — The banners hanging overhead in the sprawling Simmons plant here tell part of the story. This plant has won just about every award in the Simmons stable. It has been the Quality Assurance Champion seven times and Plant of the Year twice.
The sign out front adds another element to the story: "Through these doors walk Wisconsin's finest employees."
The 280 people who work a two-shift schedule here turned in a record-setting performance last year, producing more than $100 million worth of bedding. Simmons officials believe that is the first time that any bedding plant in the world has cracked the $100 million mark. They say Janesville is on track to duplicate that feat this year.
What makes this plant so special?
"We've got the products, we've got the marketing team and we've got the people to make the products," says Tony Saliture, 76, the legendary Simmons executive who brought Simmons to Janesville in 1980, oversaw construction of the plant and launched it on its road to success.
Saliture, who has spent more than half a century in the bedding industry, still comes to work most days at the plant. He is a consultant to Simmons, and his son, Mike, is a key account executive for the Janesville plant.
The team that Tony Saliture assembled remains in place, keeping the 290,000-square-foot plant humming. The plant produces 2,000 to 3,000 pieces of bedding each day and on its single biggest day turned out almost 5,000.
The plant has created more than just bedding. A rising bedding star came to work in Janesville in 1994 as sales manager, beginning a sterling career at Simmons. That sales manager — Bob Hellyer — quickly moved up the ladder and is now president of Simmons.
The plant's success is rooted in the hardworking populace of Janesville. A heritage of craftsmanship runs deep in the area, where the Parker Pen company was once headquartered and where General Motors makes cars today.
Tony Saliture was the perfect person to bring Simmons to Janesville, having grown up in Kenosha, Wis., where the bedding major was started in 1870.
"I had a good image of Simmons," he recalled. He started in the cost department at Simmons in 1951 and later moved to the Munster, Ind., plant. When Simmons sold that plant in 1978, Saliture was suddenly out of a job.
He joined Sealy and moved to its Clarion, Pa., plant. But then he got an offer to return to Simmons, which was looking to build a new plant. Saliture rejoined Simmons on two conditions: He could pick the site of the plant, and it would be non-union.
Saliture liked what he found in Janesville.
"Everything they told me about the work ethic of the people here was true," he said. "Most of the people were born in rural communities and never lost that old-fashioned work ethic."
Top Simmons officials came to Janesville to see for themselves. "By the end of the day I had convinced them," Saliture said. "They gave me $10 million — $5 million for the plant and $5 million for the equipment."
He set up a comfortable work environment, and convinced his associates that the best way to protect their jobs was to perform well. "The best security you have is if you produce a quality product each and every day and provide good service every (single) day," he said.
