Spring Air taps 3 to head new sales divisions
By David Perry -- Furniture Today, September 10, 2007
Elk Grove Village, Ill. — Spring Air has hired three bedding and retail industry veterans to lead three newly created sales divisions.
Charles Dietiker, most recently of retailer Sleep Country USA and Simmons, will head the Western division from the company's production facility in Lacey, Wash.
Chad Megard joins Spring Air from Comfort Solutions and will head the Central division based in Elk Grove Village. And Eric Jent, most recently at Ashley, is Eastern division leader and will be based at the company's production facility in New Brunswick, N.J.
All are division vice presidents and report to Kevin Damewood, executive vice president of sales.
"These industry veterans bring to Spring Air nearly 45 years of seasoned sales experience that will help our retailers build their bedding businesses," said Damewood.
"They will play a critical role in assisting our local sales teams better serve our customers. At a time when many of the other 'S' brands are reducing sales forces or limiting access to representatives, we are doing the opposite. We are adding people at all levels of the sales organization to improve the level of quality, service and value we are bringing to our retailers," he said.
Dietiker most recently was vice president of sales and operations for Northwest retailer Sleep Country USA. Earlier, he worked in sales and management posts at Simmons, and began his career in 1992 as a sales associate for Sleep Train in Sacramento, Calif.
Megard has worked in mattress industry sales management for 15 years, most recently as senior vice president of sales for Comfort Solutions, heading the Central region team. Earlier, he was corporate vice president of sales at Serta, held sales posts at Sealy and was a sales associate at Slumberland Furniture, Little Canada, Minn.
Jent most recently was president of Rockledge Furniture, a division of Ashley Furniture HomeStores, where he was responsible for a nine-store, $90 million sales organization in Chicago and Milwaukee. Earlier, he was with Simmons for 11 years in sales and management.
