HIGH POINT — Six bedding specialty retailers will be honored as Retail Bedding Giants at Furniture|Today’s upcoming Bedding Conference.

They were selected by Furniture|Today and the Home Furnishings International Assn., the two groups sponsoring the conference. Furniture/Today and HFIA reviewed more than two dozen retailers nominated by various industry players before selecting the six honorees.

Giants were named in three size categories: large (21 or more stores), medium-sized (11 to 20 stores) and small (10 or fewer).

Large store honorees are Select Comfort, the Minneapolis-based airbed retailer that ranks as the nation’s leading bedding retailer with almost 400 company-owned stores, and Sleep Train, the West Coast-based sleep shop chain with 123 stores. Select Comfort is headed by Bill McLaughlin, chairman and CEO. Sleep Train’s top executive is Dale Carlsen.

Honorees in the medium store category are Better Bedding of East Hartford, Conn., and Sit ‘n Sleep of Gardena, Calif. Better Bedding, which operates 19 stores, is headed by brothers John and Tom Wholley. Sit ‘n Sleep, which operates 15 stores, is run by partners Larry Miller and Nelson Bercier.

And the small store honorees are Ergo Customized Comfort of Irvine, Calif., and Long’s Bedding & Interiors of New York. Michael Nermon is president of Ergo, which has two stores. Bob Long is president of single-store Long’s Bedding.

Those six retailers will be feted at a gala awards dinner during Furniture|Today’s Bedding Conference, set for March 29-31 at the Ritz-Carlton in Lake Las Vegas, Nev.

“We had an excellent group of retailers to consider,” said Mary Frye, HFIA president. “There are far more than six outstanding bedding retailers in our industry, so it was not an easy or quick process to narrow the field.”

David Perry, executive editor of Furniture/Today, said,  “The six retailers we are singling out for special recognition all share a passion for the bedding business. Each of the six, in their own way, is a giant in their commitment to make a difference for their customers.

“We are pleased and honored to share their stories with those who attend our Bedding Conference,” he said.
A bedding supplement, to be distributed with Furniture|Today’s March 27 issue, will take an in-depth look at the six honorees.

“We’ve got a special awards program planned to celebrate the success stories written by our six honorees,” Perry said. “We invite their friends and suppliers to join us in saluting their achievements.”

To register for the conference, click here or contact Meg Goldsby, Furniture|Today’s special events manager, by e-mail at meg.goldsby@reedbusiness.com or by phone at (336) 605-1066.