David Perry
HIGH POINT — The bedding industry heads into the heart of its critical summer selling season buoyed by forecasts of strong sales growth in dollars, if not units.


In a projection updated this spring, the International Sleep Products Assn. sees an 8% jump in the dollar value of bedding shipments and a 2% rise in bedding units for 2013.

Furniture/Today’s Consensus Bedding Forecast, issued in December, calls for a slight unit gain of 0.2% this year but strong dollar growth of 7.4%.

What happens on bedding retail floors in July, August and September will go a long way in determining if those numbers can be realized. According to ISPA, the bedding industry’s trade association, those three months — led by August — traditionally are the strongest for shipments.

If the Furniture/Today and ISPA forecasts are on target, this will be yet another growth year for the bedding industry, which hasn’t had a down year since 2001.

But ISPA’s latest forecast for this year and next year calls for more moderate growth than the industry achieved in the past two years. According to ISPA, the dollar value of bedding shipments grew 10.6% in 2012 and 12.1% in 2004, while unit growth was 4% in 2012 and 3.2% in 2004.

For 2014, ISPA is forecasting growth of 9% in dollars and 2.5% in units.

Once again, the industry is expected to boost its average unit selling prices this year. The reasons, according to ISPA, are a change in product mix to higher-priced units, increases in raw material pricing, and the cost of meeting mattress flammability requirements.

The industry’s continuing ability to upgrade its product mix has been an ongoing success story for producers and retailers alike, according to bedding observers. “And there does not seem to be an end to this quality upgrade in sight,” said Jerry Epperson, an analyst with Mann, Armistead & Epperson who serves on ISPA’s forecast panel.