Cover Story
Bedding Industries of America An Experienced Network of Mattress & Bedding Professionals
By Gretchen Kast
With an origin story that dates back to 1927, Bedding Industries of America (BIA) has had a firsthand look at the many ups and downs of the mattress industry. As the retail marketplace continues to shift, this long history has proven to be an asset for the North Brunswick, New Jersey-based company, which has experienced tremendous growth in recent years. Today, BIA serves as a prime example of how traditional manufacturers can successfully adapt to changing economic tides and trends without abandoning its core ethos. Under the leadership of current CEO Stuart Carlitz, the company has not only sustained itself as one of the nation’s oldest bedding manufacturers—but has quietly evolved into one of the mattress industry’s strongest and most forward-thinking licensing groups.
ternational, Eastman House and Saatva, among others. The company has developed a growing roster of licensees that total over 15 factories in the United States and 40 abroad, with product distribution reaching over 50 countries world- wide. As the company continues to expand, the key to their success lies in a leadership structure that prioritizes honest partnership and communication. BIA is committed to working with its licensees in order to develop products that are not only substantive, but financially via- ble for their unique markets. This collaborative, non-hierarchical struc-
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ture is firmly grounded in the company’s his- tory. Before BIA evolved into the company we know today, it started out as a single factory. Jerry Gershaw inherited Bedding Industries of America from his father-in-law and maintained the trademark on the name even as he found- ed Therapedic Sleep Products Incorporated in 1957. In the face of increasing financial de-
erving as the overarching corporate entity, BIA boasts a portfolio of unique mattress brands that include Eclipse In-
mands, Gershaw set out across the country to convince other mattress factories to join him as part of a new “marketing cooperative.” His plan was for each factory to pool together their resources and divvy up the cost of creating necessary marketing and signage. Starting with key partners in New York and Chicago, Ger- shaw’s group grew to include 12 factories by the 1960’s. To this day, that cooperative mentality re-
mains a major asset in the company’s oper- ations. In addition to its network of licensing partners, BIA runs its own manufacturing New Jersey factory, which consists of two facilities with a combined 116,000 square feet, and ser- vices key markets along the East Coast. From this unique vantage point, the company lead- ership is able to share more credible expertise with its licensees—equipping them with prod- ucts and technologies that have already been tested at retail and proven successful. “The biggest thing that sets us apart from
the competition is that we’re not just some corporate office in the sky,” Carlitz explains.
“We’re also a manufacturer. Everything we ask of a licensee, we’re willing to do our- selves for our New Jersey factory.” As CEO, Carlitz himself is armed with a unique level of insight and experience only afforded to true industry veterans. After working with Ger- shaw for a brief stint in the 1980’s, he returned in 1995 as partner—his sights set on further strengthening the company’s licensing program. Between 1997 and 2001, the company under- went a series of changes as it began to oper- ate multiple mattress brands. After Gershsaw finalized his buy-out of the Therapedic brand in 1999, Carlitz took over as the company’s sole owner and reintroduced the “Bedding Industries of America” name to serve as the overarch- ing umbrella brand. before taking over as BIA’s sole owner in 2001—his sights set on further strengthening the company’slicensing program. The next six years saw a period of rapid ex- pansion for the licensing group—at which point Carlitz made the conscious decision to reset their goals to focus more on quality rather than
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