Lofa Announces Price Breakthrough With New "Promotional" Convertible Lofa-Bed

"No matter how good a product is, it's almost always the price that gets you in the door," says Mitch Wapen of Lofa Sales International in Montreal. "I learned this a long time ago selling cars, and now I'm learning it again selling LofaBeds." The LofaBed is a combination davenport/futon featuring removable and interchangeable arm designs, an eight inch buttoned futon, supported by elastic upholstery webbing, and a convertible davenport mechanism easy enough for a child to operate.

"The LofaBed was originally targeted for a $499 retail price point, and that's still the case," claims Wapen, "but when we saw the delivery costs necessary to land this baby anywhere further than the Northeast United States, the Danabel factory and I realized we had to come up with something less expensive." And so, the birth of the Promotional LofaBed.

"Basically, what we've done is use less costly materials and simplified things like our arm design and fabric selections," says Wapen, "and 'presto!' we have a solid, well built, practical product selling for $100 less!" Visually, the Promotional LofaBed is different from its cousin in two ways: the fabric selection is limited to four solid colors and one print. Also, a new "Space-Saver" arm has been designed, both to save money as well as space...the Space-Saver Promotional LofaBed measures only 79 inches from end to end!

Bedroom Distributors Develops Hard Body Futon Frame

Bedroom Distributors, Inc., based in Fort Worth, Texas has developed what they believe is the strongest import Bi-Fold in the market, with more wood than any other import frame on the market. The futon frame is known as "The Hard Body".

Don Bumgardner, President of Bedroom Distributors, Inc., has imported futon frames for years from Chili, Brazil, and Indonesia. After years of experience, and an understanding the problems that can occur with many imports, he has designed a futon frame body that has thirty percent more wood than the typical import. "We made several improvements that we feel eliminate most of the quality issues that many have experienced at one time or another," Bumgardner said.

"First of all, I knew the breakage issues found in the stretcher rails. I increased the depth and width of the rails and went to a two-bolt, one-dowel system," he said. Next, they looked at the futon's seat and back rest. All of the rails that hold the slats in place seemed to be another weak spot. "We doubled the thickness of the rails, which now measure one inch," Bumgardner said.

Bedroom Distributors also increased the thickness and width of each slat in both the seat and the futon back rest. Then they added six wooden support bars under the slats on both the seat and back for double reinforcement. In addition the wood side pieces were made thicker, pre-assembling them with the futon rollers already on the rame to simplify assembly. To top it all off, plantation grown rubberwood became the wood species of choice. Bedroom Distributors, Inc., has grown one-hundred percent in the last year because of their newest innovations and Bumgardner states, "We just wanted a futon frame that wouldn't break and that had more selling features for the retailer. They can now out-sell the competition, instead of out-pricing them."

"The proof is in the weight and the cubic feet of the box," adds Bumgardner. "Just lift our body compared to others and anyone can feel the difference. The more wood you have, the stronger the product. Most importers' frame bodies are about 6.0-7.0 cubic feet (in the box) ours is about 9.3 cubes without the arms."

"The bottom line is, we have had an 80 percent decrease in breakage in the last year because of the Hard Body Futon," says Futon Don.

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