Protect-A-Bed reps, execs gather for annual meeting
By David Perry -- Furniture Today, March 17, 2008
Orlando — A growing group of Protect-A-Bed sales representatives, trainers and executives met here recently for the company's annual meeting. More growth is on the way for the mattress and pillow protection company, officials said.
Almost 100 people attended the two-day meeting, a 30% increase over the previous year, and a sign of the company's steady growth in the bedding specialty store, furniture store and contract markets, executives said. The theme of the meeting was "Leader of the Pack."
New products giving retailers a chance to boost their sales and profits, a renewed commitment to sales training programs and a relationship-oriented approach to building the business will combine to fuel double-digit growth for the company this year, executives reported.
Principals Clive Goldin, James Bell and Lawrence Hirson predicted that the company will see a 35% sales increase this year. That is less than the 40%-plus growth rates that have characterized the company for the past several years, but it would still keep the producer on a fast-growth track.
One key for optimism in the Protect-A-Bed camp is the company's initial success with its AllerZip product, introduced last year. Initial sales for that product, which provides "an allergy free sleep zone" with a full encasement system, were strong, officials said. This year, with new display materials and a commitment to steadily expand distribution of the AllerZip mattress and pillow protection products, sales should accelerate, officials said.
While the AllerZip products help consumers avoid a variety of allergens, they also provide protection against bed bugs, a growing problem in the country, an entomologist told the group. Richard Cooper, who consulted with Protect-A-Bed on the development of AllerZip, said the products play a valuable role in the fight against bed bugs, as they completely encase mattresses and box springs and keep bed bugs from getting into or out of those units. Cooper is technical director of Cooper Pest Solutions, based in Lawrenceville, N.J.
The Protect-A-Bed sales representatives also heard upbeat reports from the company's vice presidents, Kelly Gordon, Alan Eisenberg, Petra Minoff and Jennifer Hillman.
The meeting, held at the Disney Swan Resort, included a team-building tour of the nearby EPCOT attraction and a dinner at the American pavilion at EPCOT.
The company's sales trainers, headed by Hillman, made surprise presentations to the company's key domestic and international executives, a group that included Goldin, Bell and Hirson, as well as Bernard Weinstein in Canada and David Kaplan in Australia, the founder of the company.
Each was saluted for their vision, persistence and dedication to the company, and presented with an engraved plaque.
The trainers also made a surprise presentation to Hillman, saluting her work with the company.
