Suppliers roll out new wrinkles to fuel growth
By David Perry -- Furniture Today, July 26, 2004
High Point — Visco-elastic foam suppliers are riding a strong growth wave as the foam continues to gain market share.
And they don't see any end in sight as they roll out new fabrications and constructions to keep the growth engine humming.
"We are placing much emphasis on innovation to provide unique and superior comfort options for high-end consumers," said Nick Costides, president of Foamex's Foam Products Division, a leading visco supplier. "We continue to provide education and marketing support to our customers to better position them in the marketplace and further inspire interest in visco products."
"Visco continues to grow for the industry as well as for us," said El Malechek, senior vice president of Carpenter Co. "We continue to see growth in bedding and in top-of-the-bed products."
Malechek said Carpenter works hard to ensure that its visco foams meet high quality standards. "Carpenter makes the broadest range of visco products in the market, with specific products geared to specific uses," he said. "We work very hard on quality.... Our Technical Center, the largest and best in the industry, continues to come up with new ways to fabricate and use visco materials."
Leggett & Platt is working to develop "the next-generation visco technology that will offer significant performance improvements over today's visco foams," said Gary Wahrmund, vice president of urethane products. "We are expecting a big response and hope to create substantial interest in these new products."
L&P sees an expanding market for visco foam. "The market for visco foams continues to expand into new product categories, as well as remain strong in the traditional ones it currently supports," Wahrmund said.
Also bullish on visco is Bobby Bush, vice president of the Foam Products Division at Hickory Springs. "One of these days this market will hit its saturation point," he said, "but for now there seems to be no end in sight."
Visco foam is performing so well at retail, Bush said, because it has sex appeal. "It has performance values that can be seen and felt, which means a lot more than a salesman trying to explain why a conventional foam's density is important," he said.
Hickory Springs has been in the visco business for about 10 years. Its visco foam is called Viness. In addition to serving the bedding market, the company has developed seating designs incorporating its visco foam.
Foamex's Costides said visco continues on the ascent because it offers "a unique set of properties — high conformance, virtually non-existent resilience and time-lagged but full height retention (memory). The combination of these properties equates to better moulding to body contours, lower pressure points and reduced motion transfer."
Latex Foam International, a latex foam producer, has entered the visco category with a latex topper that features a visco inlay. "There seems to be genuine interest in that product," said Kevin Stein, director of marketing. "Visco has a certain appeal at retail. This is an opportunity to get the best of both worlds."
But Stein said he believes many retailers are using latex beds as a step-up from visco beds on their showroom floors.
