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From Home Furnishing Business
Kingsdown Enters S. American Market
July 16,
2013 by Home Furnishings Business in Business Strategy, Industry 
Bedding vendor Kingsdown has teamed with Brazilian bedding producer Euroflex on the Kingsdown Vintage Collection, now in 20 Euro Colchoes stores in Rio de Janeiro.
The move marks Mebane, N.C.-based Kingsdown’s first entry into the South American market.
“Brazil is a market that simply makes sense for us,” said Kingsdown President and CEO Frank Hood . "It’s one of the world’s largest emerging economies with a growing middle and upper class hungry for quality, U.S. branded goods. The world is watching Brazil, and as it’s poised for tremendous growth, we wanted to get in at the ground floor. This is also an entrée into a new continent. As we see success in Brazil, we’ll expand further into South America--after all, it’s right on our doorstep.”
Euroflex opened its first Euro Colchoes stores in 2005, specializing in high-quality mattresses and sleep accessories with a focus on creating a collection of prestigious brands. Together, Euroflex and Kingsdown developed a custom mattress collection to cater to Euro Colchoes’ high-end clientele. The new line, dubbed the “Vintage Collection,” includes four mattress models known as the Diamond, Platinum, Imperial and Legacy. This hybrid mattress collection features premium materials including pocketed springs, high performance foams, latex and a Belgian stretch-knit fabric for the ticking.
“EuroFlex saw a gap in the marketplace and really wanted to add a heritage brand hailing from the United States to its showroom floors,” said Hood. "The results of our joint product development have been tremendous. Consumers are responding very positively to the Vintage Collection. EuroFlex is a real differentiator in the marketplace, dedicated to talking about the impact sleep has on health and wellness, while only offering consumers high-quality product. Those shared values really moved this partnership forward.”
The Vintage Collection is currently being manufactured in Brazil. EuroFlex already has outfitted its factory with Kingsdown’s exclusive Inline Comfort Support Analysis machine, which is designed to test each finished mattress to ensure it meets strict support standards. The new line is now sold in 20 Rio de Janeiro stores, with plans to expand into Sao Paulo and other cities in the future.
Kingsdown has been expanding aggressively oversees in the past 12 months, having launched partnerships in China and Indonesia as well as the United Arab Emirates and Oman in the Gulf Cooperation Council countries. The company also renewed a successful licensing agreement in Malaysia, which originated in 2010.