Conn’s Drops Tempur Sealy; Makes Serta Simmons Exclusive Supplier

December 11, 2017  by Larry Thomas in Business Strategy, Industry   

During last week’s conference call to discuss third-quarter earnings, CEO Norm Miller said the switch took place in November.

“I clearly can’t get into details with it, but … from a financial standpoint, the benefit for the customer and for the company was such that it was something that we felt like we needed to do,” Miller said in response to a question about the vendor switch.

He explained that Serta and Simmons were the retailer’s vendors when it entered the mattress business in 2006. Sealy was added in 2012 and Tempur-Pedic was added in 2014.

In early 2016, Conn’s decided to make Tempur Sealy its exclusive mattress vendor, but that arrangement only lasted a little more than a year, Miller said.

Conn’s combines furniture and mattress revenues in its earnings reports, and he would not disclose specific figures for mattress sales.

Tempur Sealy is still reeling from the loss of its business with Mattress Firm, the nation’s largest sleep shop chain and Tempur Sealy’s largest customer until April.

In the quarter ended Sept. 30, Tempur Sealy’s sales were 12.9% below last year’s third quarter, when Mattress Firm was still a customer. However, Tempur Sealy noted that its North American sales were up 10% when Mattress Firm sales were excluded from the comparison.