The Spears Family Partners with Eclipse and Eastman House to Launch Heritage Sleep Concepts
By Gretchen Kast Industry veterans Terry Spears and Stuart Carlitz have joined two bedding legacies to launch Heritage Sleep Concepts, serving the critical interests of mattress and bed- ding retailers throughout the South. A new company with strong roots within the bed- ding industry, Heritage Sleep Concepts is the convergence a family mattress business steeped in decades of tradition. “This is more than the usual licensing ar- rangement to engage in business,” Spears explains. “This is a new “partnership” of ex- perienced professionals, bringing two bed- ding teams together, to address the needs of retailers my family has served for decades.” The new company is owned and oper- ated by the Spears family, who previously founded and ran Spears Mattress Company, alongside highly qualified mattress veterans that boast over 30 years of experience. This team has previously developed many of the successful mattress products that were sold throughout the South, helping key indepen- dent dealers to strengthen their entire sleep gallery programs over a 20-year period. Teaming up with Carlitz, President and
CEO of Bedding Industries of America (BIA) and manufacturer of Eastman House and Eclipse, was a perfect combination, ac- cording to Spears. Founded in 1866, East- man House has expanded into a nationally recognized brand over the years, expand- ing to include such recognized, high quality industry brands as Chittenden, Airloom and
20 BEDROOM / Spring 2015
Dormir Sleep Products. In 2007, the com- pany was acquired by Carlitz’s Mattress De- velopment Corporation, the licensing and marketing arm of Eclipse, Eastman House, Ernest Hemingway and BIA worldwide brands of mattresses. Founded in 1905, Eclipse International is known for combin- ing the brand’s clinically-tested, proprietary and patented mattress component tech- nologies to create high-value mattresses which improve sleep quality, reduce back and neck pain and stiffness. Today Eclipse has expanded to include 21 factories serv- ing six continents. “Their history, the premium quality of
these brands, the handcrafted and proprie- tary patented features offered by Eclipse and Eastman house are exactly what we need,” Spears said. “These two brands offer Heritage Sleep the opportunity to build key products at im- portant price points for today’s consumer,” said Bob Ashburn, Heritage’s Vice President of Sales and Marketing. “Dealers are looking for quality and value, and they are need to improve their AUSP and GP. Selling them the same major label branded bed as the store down the street without clear product dif- ferentiation is not a healthy merchandising strategy for our retailers.”
The launch of Heritage Sleep Concepts and its brand new state-of-the art 60,000 square foot mattress factory in Rome, GA has been two years in the making. Follow- ing a series of closures, acquisitions and dis- continuations throughout the South—along with the mergers and consolidations of the top four major mattress brands and the con- tinued buyouts of the larger bedding retail specialty stores—the Spears and Eclipse/ Eastman House alliance sees an opportunity to offer independent furniture and mattress retailers better product merchandising with products that offer quality and real value. “All of these events and circumstances have come together over the last two years,
creating this opportunity for Heritage Sleep Concepts and Eclipse/Eastman House to meet the needs of our customers in the Southeast,” Spears explained.
BIA has been very selective with Eclipse and Eastman House about bringing in mattress factories. With the addition of Heritage Sleep Concepts, these national brands will have a to- tal of 11 factories under license or sub-license across the country. Working closely with the Heritage team, BIA has developed two lines for the company’s key retail customers. “Our Eastman House line will focus on nat-
ural handcrafted features with premium latex and advanced hybrids programs,” Ashburn explained. “There will be a strong ‘power premium’ selection at key price points. The Eclipse product line will focus on the patent- ed Spinal Zone features at mid-price range and premium price points with the Chiro Col- lection of chiropractic endorsed mattresses. Both of these programs offer compelling fea- tures that consumers need, and retailers are looking for.” The lines will range from value products at $299 in Queen to the premium price point topping out at $1999. Queen.” A legacy partnership grounded in a unique
retail opportunity, the launch of Heritage Sleep Concepts is being called the ‘Return of the Sleeping Giant of the South” by Spears. “Given our opportunities and goals, the Eclipse/Eastman House brands are ideal for our marketing and manufacturing strategy,” he said. “Stuart Carlitz and his management team have done a wonderful job of support- ing our efforts during this product launch. Stuart’s commitment to quality was evident as soon as we walked into their plant. They have made it much easier for our team to move forward with a well researched prod- uct line that will make sense to our custom- ers at every price point.” Visit
heritagesleepconcepts.com,
eclipsemattress.com and
eastmanhousemattress.com.
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