Borreggine is right on key role of retailers
David Perry, Executive editor -- Furniture Today, January 12, 2004
A new year always means a new beginning. But will the new year be one filled with good tidings for mattress men and women everywhere, or will the Grinch show up at some point?
The fashionable and popular answer is that we will have a stronger year than last year, possibly even a breakout year, which sounds something like a "barnburner" of a year.
At the same time, it's worth noting that all the high hopes in the world won't sell a single mattress.
That's one of the points Gerry Borreggine, vice president of sales and marketing at Therapedic, made in his comments to me for the bedding outlook special report we published in our Dec. 15 issue.
"The business will go only as far as it is carried at retail," Borreggine noted. "The fortunes of the industry this … year will rest squarely on the shoulders of the retailers."
He knows a thing or two about retail, having cut his teeth in the business at bedding specialist 40 Winks in the Philadelphia market. And he knows that bedding retailers remember the tough times they have endured in the past two years, years that have produced a wild rollercoaster ride.
Borreggine can and does make a case that 2004 will be a better year, raising the possibility that "pent-up demand" will finally be unleashed for bedding this year.
I single out his assessment in this column for two reasons. First, because his comments are candid, and candor is always a refreshing and valuable commodity in communications. Second, because I think he's right to inject a note of reality.
Hey, we all want business to be great this year. If that happens, producers and retailers will do more business and make more money, they will be in better spirits, and that will be better for me. When business turns sour, so do attitudes.
I do think the stage is set for 2004 to be a significantly stronger year than 2003. But it won't happen just because we want it to happen.
Producers must plan aggressively to grow their business. And they must work to include their retailers in those aggressive plans. For their part, retailers must promote relentlessly. Admittedly, this is no great revelation. But it remains true. The business will go to those who go after it.
It's true that a rising tide lifts all boats. But it's also true that to get more than your share, you've got to outwork and outpromote your competition.
So, yes, let's be optimistic as we go about the serious business of marketing our beds this year. But let's all remember that it will be the retailers who will get the job done — or not — in the new year that awaits us all.
Opinion columns are available online at www.furnituretoday.com.
