David Perry — Furniture Today,
Bedding producers will gather in Plaza Suites

HIGH POINT — Merchandise Mart Properties Inc. is relocating and expanding The Bedding Center that it launched here at the spring High Point market.

The center, an aggressive effort by MMPI to boost bedding’s presence at the market here, moves to the first floor of Plaza Suites, a location winning praise from exhibitors. “It will be a major plus to be in a building where furniture buyers are shopping,” said Neal Grigg, president of Carolina Mattress Guild.

The Bedding Center, formerly in the Suites at Market Square, nearly doubles in size, growing from 15,000 square feet to 25,000 square feet for the Oct. 1-7 fall market. The space is sold out.

The roster of tenants includes two Top 15 bedding producers, Therapedic and Corsicana. Other exhibitors include Alfa Airbeds, Arason Enterprises, Carolina Mattress Guild, Eclipse International, Glideaway Sleep Products, Hickory Springs Mfg., Industrias Tobia, Pacific Coast Feather and Springwall Mattress.

Some of the companies have taken larger spaces. They include Corsicana, which added 200 square feet, and Springwall, which added 400 square feet.

“The response has been overwhelming,” said Tom Mitchell, senior vice president of MMPI in High Point, “but we are not surprised, since this is such an important category for our industry. We knew from our research that buyers coming to the High Point Market wanted more opportunities to shop bedding while they were here, so we created The Bedding Center to respond to that need.”

Gerry Borreggine, president and CEO of Therapedic, said The Bedding Center established “a strong foundation” at the spring market. He said the new Plaza Suites site is “a much improved location for our category.”

“We are thrilled about the new location for The Bedding Center,” added Jim Wall, director of consumer products at Hickory Springs. “We think this will be a great venue for our customers to see our products in High Point.”