Ashley Senior Vice President of Bedding Brad Rogers describes how the company has revamped its bedding division, revealing a “first” for the department, as well as new products that offer opportunities to retailers to expand the total ticket price.
Transcript
Waynette Goodson
It’s Waynette Goodson. I’m your managing editor of BedTimes and Sleep Savvy magazines. Today, we had the privilege of this edition of “Take 5.” We have Brad Rogers, the senior vice president of bedding at Ashley Bedding Division. Can you talk about just some of the revamping that you’ve done? I mean, it’s soup to nuts.
Brad Rogers
One of the things that’s probably most exciting for us in the Ashley Bedding Divisions is that we will have a whole new product line hitting for the first time in quite some time. And it’s all hitting at once. And we’ve revamped this entire product line over a 12 month period. We feel like we’ve become very fashion forward in some of our ticking selections, thanks to some of the great partners that we’ve had in the industry.
It’s one of the things we’re really excited about. We’ve seen raw materials calm down just a little bit, which gave us a great opportunity to really start providing more value. We’ve always been a value proposition company and bedding organization, but rather than just taking the same type of build and putting a different fabric on it, we decided to give more value to the consume
Let’s give more value to the retailers so the retailer can then look like the hero to the consumer.
Waynette Goodson
Right? And now you do have a couple of new products that come out. You mentioned a weighted blanket, and some of those are just newbies.
Brad Rogers
Well, one thing we feel is very important in this industry is the accessory division. We just introduced three new mattress protectors: a good, better, and best program, with the top two giving us a cooling story and a new weighted blanket. I know weighted blankets have been in the industry for quite a while.
The 15-pound weighted blanket is probably the most popular blanket out there, so we just introduced that, and it just gives the retailer an opportunity to expand the ticket to add on to the ticket and to be able to offer more to the consumer, just like our new power base collection.
Waynette Goodson
Right. You’re big into the adjustable bases now. You aren’t missing a beat. Talk about the adjustable bases.
Brad Rogers
Yeah, the adjustable base program has been tremendous for us. We’ve had a couple of new introductions. One of the things we just introduced was our new adjustable base that extends out to the lumbar, giving us a lumbar story as well as sound. We’re offering a great sound that Bluetooth to the TV or your Spotify Pandora, however, you want to hook it up.
So it’s been very exciting for us, and we feel like we’re on a, you know, a great upward trend right now.
Waynette Goodson
Right, Right. Well, forward motion is always a good thing. I love the idea of turning our beds into our entertainment centers. It’s no longer maybe the living room. Now it’s in the bedroom. So, Brad, congratulations on all of your new programs. Thank you.
Brad Rogers
And I appreciate it.
Waynette Goodson
That Ashley is going, and thank all of you for tuning in to “Take 5.”. And as always, have a great night’s sleep.
