Luxury mattress producer E.S. Kluft & Co., based in Rancho Cucamonga, California, has named two veteran executives to new leadership roles and has added three regional account managers.
Juan Dionis
Juan Dionis, who joined the company earlier this year as a management consultant, has been named managing director, and Dominick Azevedo, a former Simmons Bedding executive who joined Kluft in 2015, was promoted to executive vice president of sales and marketing.
The three new regional account managers are Richard Ho, Erin Jones and Sonny Zymali.
Dionis’ background includes more than 35 years of experience serving as chief executive officer and chief financial officer of several multinational and public companies in the consumer products, retail and high-tech industries. Before joining Kluft, he most recently had been CEO of Natra, a global conglomerate producing a variety of chocolate products. Earlier in his career, he held top leadership positions with telecommunications leader Ericsson and global accounting and management consulting firm Arthur Andersen.
Dionis said: “We have strong brands and excellent leadership that will drive this business to new levels. There is a great culture of quality, craftsmanship and customer service that serves as the basis for the further success yet to come.”
Azevedo is widely credited with Kluft’s dramatic sales increases, according to a news release. The promotion was designed to better align sales with product design and marketing, and better respond to customer needs, the release said.
Azevedo said: “I am very fortunate to lead a solid sales and marketing team that has the most experience in the country manufacturing and selling luxury bedding. I am also privileged to count on Tony Alvarez for product development, who worked with (the late company founder) Earl Kluft since the beginning.”
Dominick Azevedo
Complementing the new senior leadership team for the company was the appointment of Luciano Saldana as vice president of operations earlier this year. Saldana joined the company from Simmons Bedding West, where he was the head of operations. Since coming aboard, he has increased output from the company’s Pennsylvania plant and oversaw the physical expansion of the California facility, according to the news release.
Commenting on the new team, Rafael Gonzalez, CEO of E.S. Kluft parent company the Flex Group, said: “We have a unique and exclusive product line together with an extraordinary customer base. We have reached our targets, but to continue our rapid growth and international expansion, we needed a different set of leaders and new management structure to support this strategy. This team has the right mix of experience to execute on a national and global scale and be even more responsive to our customer needs.”
On the new sales management team, Ho is working in the West region, reporting to Bill Visser, vice president of the West region. He most recently had been a territory manager for Serta Simmons Bedding LLC in Los Angeles and earlier was a retail account specialist for Simmons in Seattle, where he earned several awards for sales growth.
Jones is working in the East region and reports to Chad Megard, senior vice president of the East region. Jones most recently had been a territory manager for Pure Talalay Bliss and previously spent nearly five years as territory manager for Tempur Sealy International Inc. in the Washington, D.C., and Philadelphia metro areas. Earlier in his career, he was a store manager and district competition manager for Mattress Firm in the Phoenix area.
Zymali is working in the Central region and reports to Brett Swygman, vice president of the Central region. Zymali most recently was a key account manager with polyurethane foam manufacturer Elite Comfort Solutions and earlier spent four years as senior strategic account manager for Simmons and SSB, where he earned numerous awards for sales growth and profitability.
Commenting on the posts, Azevedo said: “As our business continues to grow in every region of the country, we needed to add more resources to our sales team. Erin, Sonny and Richard bring a wealth of mattress industry knowledge to their new positions and their deep retail relationships will allow them to make immediate contributions.”
