After several tough years of struggling to overcome the effects of the Great Recession, increased competition from other bedding manufacturers and changing consumer demographics, Weil’s Mattress Co. has regained its footing.
Although the very survival of the nearly century-old enterprise at times seemed threatened, the company credits fresh thinking with helping it to find its way again.
Rooted in the South
Weil’s, which is better known by its trade name, Southern Lady Bedding and Window Coverings, is a fourth-generation, family-owned business in North Charleston, S.C. Julius Weil, who once owned a cotton mill that sold raw materials to furniture manufacturers, founded the company in 1914.
The economic downturn forced Weil’s Mattress Co. to lay off some employees. ‘We became a whole lot leaner company and now expect much more from our people and from ourselves,’ says President Ritchie Weil.
“My great-grandfather decided to go into the mattress industry after furniture manufacturers began to consolidate around High Point, N.C.,” says company President Ritchie Weil. “He didn’t want to move and it wasn’t competitive to try to sell them cotton from Charleston.”
Today, the company is owned and operated by Richard Weil, who is chief executive officer, and his sons, Ritchie and Steve. Ritchie Weil oversees manufacturing, sources components and materials, and is the acting sales manager. Vice President Steve Weil manages sales and marketing functions, oversees human resources and develops new products and markets.
“When Steve and I came into the business, we had to invent our own roles,” Ritchie Weil says. “Dad was basically doing everything.”
For years, the company’s products were favorites among Charleston’s long-established furniture stores. And its reputation as a multigenerational, family-owned business that took care of its customers appealed to the region’s consumers, particularly those steeped in the traditions of the South.
Steve Weil sparked a new period of company growth when he made it his mission to expand sales to hotels and resorts. Business in the hospitality sector was so good that, for a time, the company’s headquarters housed a design studio for the convenience of interior designers working with the properties.
Troubled times
In 2007, the company posted about $4 million in annual sales. And then things began to slip.
The company’s contract business took a significant hit when hotel chains, in an effort to manage their own costs, began dictating purchasing agreements to franchisees.
As the recession progressed, the company saw another important part of its business decline.
“Our strength has always been with mom-and-pop furniture stores, and we watched potential shrink there, too,” Ritchie Weil says.
Although consumers who knew the brand remained loyal, the coastal South, which traditionally made up much of the company’s market, was changing demographically, as well.
“We’ve had a new influx of people from the North who didn’t know Southern Lady. They just knew the big brand names,” Steve Weil says.
And, Ritchie Weil adds, those consumers can choose bedding products from plenty of other aggressive mattress manufacturers: “There continues to be new competition—the big guys and other independents—in our market all the time.”
Although the company has remained financially strong throughout its long history, the Weils acknowledge that the recession and the other marketplace changes combined to threaten its future.
“Last year, we looked at problems with meeting our expenses,” Ritchie Weil says. “We talked about how long we would be able to keep doing this, but we never set a marker for giving up. We just didn’t want to do it.”
Remaking a company
Instead of closing the company’s doors, the Weils looked for ways to generate additional business and cut costs. To reduce expenses, the company laid off employees and trimmed inefficiencies from the manufacturing process.
“We became a whole lot leaner company and now expect much more from our people and from ourselves,” Ritchie Weil says.
Bringing in new business required looking at the company’s capabilities and product mix with fresh eyes. As they did so, the Weils kept circling back to an ancillary piece of their business that seemed less susceptible to the economic pressures that were slowing mattress sales.
To understand the leap of faith the family took, it’s necessary to go back more than a decade, when a major part of Steve Weil’s job was selling mattresses to the hospitality sector. In 2001, American of Martinsville approached him about representing their contract furniture line during his sales calls. When two other companies approached him with a similar deal, Steve Weil knew he had a new business opportunity and founded Southern Lady Hospitality, which was run separately.
About two years ago, the Weils saw that sales of window treatments and bedcovers through Southern Lady Hospitality were holding steady.
“That’s when we decided that we could do this in-house as a way of covering overhead while the mattress business was slow,” Ritchie Weil says. “We set up a separate section of the plant, hired a separate workforce and now we’re committed to it.”
Sales of the window treatments, bedcovers, decorative pillows and dust ruffles reached about $400,000 in 2011 and Steve Weil expects that “to at least double” this year.
“It’s a great business and we haven’t even scratched the surface yet,” he says. “The potential is huge. Right now, we’re using about a tenth of our 65,000-square-foot plant for this and, at the end of April, we converted a 2,000-square-foot showroom to sewing. If we can get our manufacturing capacity expanded, this is a worldwide business.”
Money in mattresses
It’s unlikely that the sewing side of the business will be able to pull additional production space from mattress manufacturing, however. As the U.S. economy has slowly improved, so have mattress sales.
The company’s sales territory traditionally has been South Carolina, parts of North Carolina and coastal Georgia and the Weils plan to dig deeper into that region.
“There’s still room for expansion in Charleston and our strategy is to start in close, regain market share and then move out,” Ritchie Weil says. The Weils are eyeing coastal markets in the Southeast, including Florida.
Although they decry the commoditization of mattresses, the Weils are committed to giving their customers what they want—and right now, they want lower prices that can be passed on to consumers. To meet that need, last year the company launched a seven-model innerspring Charleston collection with suggested retail prices from $299 to $699 for a queen set.
“This is a super-value collection. Traditionally, the lower end hasn’t been our strength,” Ritchie Weil says. “But it gives retailers more ammunition—more look for the money—without sacrificing quality.”
The six foam-encased innerspring models in the company’s Designer collection appeal to owners of second homes who live in the area’s many resort communities. The beds retail from $499 to $1,399.
Fully 50% of the retailers who buy from the Weils bypass the company’s set collections and order models that have worked well for them in the past.
“They don’t want to change, so we just keep making what they’ve been buying for years, although that doesn’t mean that the mattresses haven’t evolved through time,” Ritchie Weil says.
Moving forward
Even with sales growing again—the company posted about $2 million in annual sales for 2011 and projects $2.5 million for 2012—the Weils won’t forget the survival lessons they’ve learned.
“The economy is back and is as good as it’s going to get for a long time. You have to go with it,” Steve Weil says. “Hard work and going outside of the box paid off for us. So did the fact that we’re family owned, financed and operated. Weil’s has three owners who are flexible and can move quickly. That’s why we’re still here.”
OwnershipPrivately held by the Weil family.
| BRIEFLY | |
| Company | Weil’s Mattress Co. Also operates as Southern Lady Bedding and Window Coverings. |
| Specialty | Innerspring mattresses and bedding accessories such as bedcovers, decorative pillows and dust ruffles. Also produces decorative window treatments. |
| Headquarters | North Charleston, S.C. |
| Facilities | A 65,000-square-foot headquarters manufacturing plant. |
| Founding | Started by Julius Weil in 1914. |
| Learn more | www.weilsmattress.com |
