WHITE PLAINS (N.Y.)- Four new oak futon styles will be introduced to the home furnishings industry March 15 - 18 when Island Futon Company, one of the futon industry’s leading imported futon furniture manufacturers, introduces its 1999 product line-up to the futon trade in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Island Futon will be showing its complete oak and hardwood futon and related furniture products at the Futon Association International Expo in Space 605, along with futon category leaders SIS Futon Covers and Gold Bond futon mattress, Sam Leone, Island’s General Manager announced.

Island Futon is an affiliate of Cross Island Trading, a 30 year-old international trading group that has integrated its forest concessions and logging operations with multiple factory-finished products and with its shipment containerization and distribution operations.

Island Futon’s furniture is manufactured in the company’s state-of-the-art factories in Indonesia, China and Malaysia. The group presently employs about 2,000 people, and exports furniture to North America, Europe, Scandinavia, Australia, and New Zealand.

The new oak futon frame and furniture introductions include a southwest desert style called “Durango”, the sleigh style “Berkshire”, and a curved mission arm “Covington”. Two new hardwood futon frames will be introduced: the “South Beach” and the “Sonora” featuring the new golden oak finish. Island Futon’s furniture is made from genuine oak, golden oak, Nyatoh, and other quality hardwoods.

Island has also developed a line of headboards and is accepting special orders for mass merchants and specialty futon retailers.

Island Futon Company, Inc. was recently awarded a 20 year patent for its unique “E-Z Open” front conversion futon system. The company has instituted an 18 step Quality Assurance factory quality check program and ships in newly designed “Tuff Pak” product packaging to minimize freight damage.

Crestwood Leisure Products Enters Category
At Las Vegas Expo With Upholstered Futon Frame

Crestwood Leisure Products is a new company located in Hickory, NC that manufactures upholstered futon frames. “We have researched the futon category and are committed to finding and producing the newest and best products for this growing category,” said Diane Powell, company Sales Manager. Crestwood’s commitment to the category also led them to exhibit at this year’s Futon Expo in Las Vegas.

Employing the concept that, no matter how thick the futon mattress is, the mechanism should have some buoyancy, like the box spring foundation on a bed, Crestwood uses the Hickory Springs “Comfort Lounger” mechanism. “This mechanism uses sinuous wire so there are no bars to press into the back. The simplicity of operation is another plus we believe offers consumers some great choices that have not been available in the futon industry before,” Powell said. The company offers seven completely different upholstered futon frames that run from the contemporary to traditional styles. “These styles, in this format (upholstered) have not been readily available to the futon industry before.

“Our design team is constantly working to stay current with new choices and options, and our fabric selections will be updated two times per year,” she said.

This year the fabrics range from cottons, chenilles, and wovens, to prewashed, corduroys, and leather. “We will even do custom runs for people who have a special fabric they want to use,” she said.

Powell added that quality control is a top priority at Crestwood and that a full inspection program to examine each piece before it leaves the plant is already in place to assure that each unit and its packaging is correct in every detail. “We are committed to comfort, style, quality, choice and customer satisfaction. These are the things that we believe are important to our customers, and will continue to be important as we move into the twenty-first century,” she said.

Harlee Adds Additional Consumer Oriented P.O.P. For Futon buyers

A new consumer oriented brochure for Harlee futon frames and bedroom furniture was introduced to customers at the January San Francisco show. Entitled “Furniture For Your Home”, the full color, tabloid sized brochure shows all of Harlee’s products and was designed for use as a sales aid on the retail showroom floor and as a consumer take home piece. Every item in the Harlee line is pictured in comfortable room settings with many decorating ideas. The new brochures drew praise from futon retailers who received advance copies, including reports that the brochure helped close several sales on retail floors.

Also unveiled in San Francisco was Harlee’s new “Select Your Finish” easel board. The new display of wood samples and finish styles makes the selection of a finish easy for consumers. The display shows consumers the finishes available for each model on Harlee furniture items.

“The new brochure and the Select Your Finish display are the latest addition to Harlee’s successful “Partners in Retail” program of sales aids for the futon store owner,” said Chet Stoler, Harlee’s Director of Marketing. Other items available to the futon retailer include ad slicks and studio photos of Harlee products.

The Word In Sleep For 1999 Is Fossfill®

Creative Bedding Technologies Introduces New Fillings For Futons, Other Furnishings

Elgin, Ill, — At this season’s furnishings shows, the buzz is all about Fossfill®, the patented fiber from Creative Bedding Technologies that made its industry debut in 1997 as a pillow filling. Based on the remarkable success it generated in the pillow market, CBT is now introducing Fossfill as a filler for futons and other furnishings.

Fossfill is a breakthrough synthetic feather that outperforms other fillers on comfort, durability, allergy sensitivity, and hygiene. Fossfill is the closest thing to a “natural synthetic” ever developed as a filler. Its unique property is perpetual fluffability and it comes with a generous guarantee against flattening. Fossfill offers the identical comfort and feel of down, yet is 100 percent hypoallergenic. It is also fully launderable, and is the same product that prompted hotel guests across the country to deluge the manufacturer with requests to purchase their bedding.

“We recognized from the start what a remarkable product we have in Fossfill but even we never anticipated the incredible response it has elicited from consumers,” said Scott Van Pelt, CBT President. “It was the demand from hotel customers that led us to the retail market, and now that national chains like Sears are finding great success with our pillows, it is a logical extension for us to bring Fossfill to other segments of the furnishings industry.”

Smaller retailers like Coppersmiths’ Furniture in Emporium, Pennsylvania are also turning Fossfill into a new profit center. “The Fossfill pillow has not only been a huge seller, it’s also been an enormous traffic generator,” says Randall E Metcalf, Coppersmiths’ General Manager.

Creative Bedding Technologies see tremendous opportunities for Fossfill as a filling for futons, chairs and sofas, and other padded furnishings.

“Fossfill has the potential to be the fiber of the future for virtually any kind of padded furniture,” Van Pelt says. “There is no limit to the ways it can be used.”

Renelle Introduces Front Operating Futon Frame Conversion
and a Five Year Warranty Program

Renelle Futons will introduce a Full Five Year Warranty on their entire line of pine futon frames in March at the Expo in Las Vegas. State of the art woodworking equipment, export grade lumber, and the first hand experience that comes from having four futon stores in Vancouver, have all contributed to the quality of each pine futon frame.

A recently developed front operating system designed to be used specifically with pine allows conversion from sofa to bed and back at the touch of a finger, and all from the front of the futon frame.

The company offers twelve designs in a variety of finishes, many are available with matching chair, loveseat and tables. They also produce four platform beds and a bunk bed.

Renelle has been a leader in the futon industry for fourteen years. Today in their 50,000 square foot facility in Surrey, B C (just north of Seattle, WA) they also manufacture six futon mattresses and a great selection of futon covers.

FL