The Rize merger with Glideaway benefits both sides of the bedding aisle.
Rize, formerly known as Mantua, and Glideaway, strategically announced their merger the week before the Las Vegas Summer Market to kick off with two sales forces, to share products and innovation, and to create momentum, according to David Jaffe, chief executive officer.
And it worked.
When BedTimes toured the Vegas showroom, the mood was light and positive, with talk of big plans for the future.
“The energy around the merger from both sides from the sales perspective has been very, very well received,” said Rick Sterzer, executive vice president of sales and marketing. “We’re excited that the teams are already getting together and having discussions. We’re seeing where the gaps are in both of our organizations and how those gaps are filled from a product and service standpoint. There’s a lot of benefits on both sides of it.”
From a customer standpoint, Rize has roughly 2,000 unique customers, and Glideaway has 1,000 unique customers, with less than 10 customers that both companies sold to. “There’s that piece of it that we’re not on top of each other,” he said. “All those channels remain the same.”
Product-wise, Sterzer pointed out that Glideaway didn’t have an upholstered bed program, so the company showed the Rize product in their Vegas showroom.
“We saw new orders of products with some of the traditional Glideaway customers on some of the upholstered beds and some of our adjustable bases — right away we’re driving additional placements,” Sterzer said.
Rize’s upholstered bed groups with headboard, footboard and side rails all-in-one box offer a new value proposition for Glideaway. These are at “value price points delivered to their retail partners at $299 retail for a queen size bed,” Sterzer said. “So we have some really exciting things and they’re blown away by the value.”
Likewise, Glideaway has some unique product offerings that will benefit Rize.
“They have a wonderfully well-received Elevation base that remains in the flat position and pitches straight up so you can have some relief and health benefits without having to get into that Zero G configuration,” Sterzer said. “That’s a product that we’re looking forward to integrating into our portfolio over time.”
In addition, Glideaway offers an array of pillows that fill a gap at Rize. “We’re more on the upper end of the pillow assortment, so their products just slot in nicely at the mid-range,” he said. “Now we have an extensive pillow line that complements each other well.”
During the next six to eight months, all these products will be rebranded under the new parent company name, Rize Home. From a marketing standpoint, it will also be one company marketed together under the name, Rize Home.
“We’re going to be more than just the bedroom,” Sterzer said. “We want to be the whole home, and this gives us the opportunity to take what we already have and fold in other parts of home furnishings into our portfolio. I think the new brand and the new company name, Rize Home, takes us further into other categories.”
For Mike Vasko, director of sales and sales operations, the merger also offers a major benefit in terms of logistics.
“I’m excited about a central U.S. location,” Vasko said. “We’ve got East Coast, West Coast and Texas, but that St. Louis location right in the dead center of the U.S. near I-70 and I-55 that comes out of Chicago – it’s such a great location. I’m working the hospitality side now, and the merger will allow us to get hospitality products closer to customers nationwide.”
But for Jaffe, the chief executive officer, it all comes down to growth and innovation.
“So often with mergers and acquisitions, it’s about how do we cut back – and we’re the exact opposite,” Jaffe said. “This is a growth play between two great family companies and that’s what the excitement is all about.”
Rize announced in late July that it had merged with competitor Glideaway to become Rize Home — a $150 million company with 3,000 retailers and more than 20,000 store fronts.
“Glideaway and Rize are like the same companies; they’re traditional bed frame manufacturers that have been in business for 70–80 years,” Sterzer explained. The third-generation, family-managed companies have both been selling bed frames, adjustable bed bases, mattress, pillows and mattress protectors.
Talks began to merge in 2020 during the Covid-19 pandemic, when Jaffe and Zev Fredman, president of Glideaway, began discussing how to successfully mitigate the virus’s challenges.
Under the new Rize Home corporate structure, the company will continue to produce the Glideaway branded products and Rize products. Jaffe is CEO; Fredman, former president of Glideaway, is chief financial officer; Marc Spector, former Rize president, becomes president of the new entity Rize Home; and Sterzer remains executive vice president of sales.
Rize Home operates manufacturing facilities in St. Louis, Missouri; Cleveland; and Houston. The company has distribution centers in Tampa, Florida; Seattle; and California.