They’re Bedding Big on Organic Fever

0

When an environmentally conscious woman gets up in the morning, she can put on organic makeup, don organic cotton duds (that have been organically dry-cleaned, of course) and have a breakfast of organic cereal topped with organic fruit.


But before she does any of that, she can climb out of a bed with a mattress assembled by hand using only organic materials, thanks to Custom Rest Bedding Inc.


Yes, demand for all things organic has grown such that even mattress makers have gotten into it.


“Four years ago, it really took off,” said Scott Carwile, co-owner of Custom Rest of South El Monte. “Then we had 40 customers, and now we have over 400.”


Although organic and natural mattresses are a growing segment, there are only a handful of manufacturers in the world, including Custom Rest, which does business at Vivetique Sleep Systems, and Valley Village-based H3 Environmental.


“It’s still a niche market,” said Nancy Shark of the International Sleep Products Association.


Customers who want an organic mattress are attracted to the fact that natural materials don’t give off gases and fumes like some traditional mattresses. Critics point out that natural materials can trap allergens and moisture.


But organic mattress customers also want a heavy, hand-made mattress of high quality, one that makes them feel healthy and comfortable.


Said Shark: “If you don’t get enough sleep, you won’t have enough energy to get up and save the planet.”


Hand made, high-quality mattresses also mean high-dollar mattresses. Most mass-produced mattresses sell in the hundreds of dollars, but Vivetique mattresses start at $2,400 and run up to $9,000.


Carwile said that since the company went all natural, it allowed him and his twin brother, Steve, to stay focused on their original mission making mattresses by hand. Each mattress is custom-made for the client and can last 20 years.


It would be very difficult for any relatively small operator to compete seam-to-seam with a big mattress maker.


In the $6.4 billion mattress industry, there are a few giants like Sealy Corp. or Serta International. Sealy has $1.5 billion of the market, or about one-fourth. Sales in the industry are booming, increasing about 10 percent annually.



Early start

The twin brothers took over the company seven years ago, which their father, Jerry, had started out of the family garage in Temple City in 1976.


“We had a tape edge, a sewing machine and some tools,” said Scott Carwile, who now handles the sales side of the business while his quieter brother oversees production. The twins helped their father hand sew mattresses after he lost his job at a box spring manufacturer.


The business made enough money to open a facility in San Gabriel in 1977 and in the mid-1980s, the family bought out Crown City Mattresses, a company that first opened in 1917. Today, Custom Rest has 33 employees and does $4 million in revenues.


Steve Carwile started working for the family business full time in 1992. After hitting the trade show circuit and attending several “green” trade shows he realized that while the array of environmentally friendly products was dizzying, there was nothing from the bedding industry.


“We started taking an all-cotton bed to green trade shows and we started getting calls from all over the country,” said Carwile.


When their father retired in 2000, the brothers took over the company’s ownership. They closed retail locations in San Gabriel and La Crescenta, and focused solely on manufacturing organic bedding products, from comforters and crib bumpers to the highest-quality custom mattresses.


The company’s revenues have jumped at least 35 percent every year since 2002. During that time, the company moved from a 5,000-square-foot facility in San Gabriel to a 30,000-square-foot site next door. The company also plans to take an additional 10,000 square feet in the same location this year.


Dr. Scott Bautch, chiropractor and past president of the American Chiropractic Association’s Council on Occupational Health, said that he recommends handmade mattresses for clients with health problems and natural mattresses for those with allergy problems.


“If someone has bad allergies,” Bautch said, “and buys something that hasn’t been chemically treated, it can make a difference.”


Bautch pointed out that the least expensive natural mattresses aren’t much more expensive than Serta’s top brands, which run between $1,700 and $2,000, or even as high as $6,000 for the premier collection. Sealy’s mattresses top out at $3,000. In general, the quality and prices of mattresses are trending upward industry wide.


The chemicals used to create some fire-retardant solutions, required on synthetic mattresses, are a concern of many health-conscious consumers. Mattresses made of cotton and wool are less flammable than synthetics and do not require fire retardants. Flame retardants sometimes contain gasoline and petrochemicals. Since these are applied to the surface of the mattress, organic proponents claim that these chemicals are practically being inhaled during sleep.


However, since organic materials that are used to stuff mattresses are more porous, they can also absorb allergens, including dander.


“Organic material can be less resistant to allergens, but they come with less pollutants,” Bautch said.


“It’s really frustrating that all fire-retardant solutions get lumped in as having cancer-causing agents because that’s just not the case,” said Sealy spokesperson David Mullen. Sealy’s proprietary solution is non-toxic.


Mullen said Sealy makes a synthetic latex mattress because some people are allergic to natural latex. And as for absorbent, organic cotton mattresses, Mullen pointed out that some people sweat when they sleep a lot.


“Organic is a hot topic right now and when you hear something is organic, right off the cuff you think it’s better. But that’s not always the case,” he said.



Expanding

The Carwiles are currently focused on increasing the firm’s access to materials and expanding the range of the company’s sales.


The amount of organic cotton or cotton grown without the use of pesticides on land that has been pesticide-free for seven years is limited. With major brands like Nike Inc. and Levi Strauss & Co. entering the organic sector, a severe shortage of organic cotton is expected by next year.


Scott Carwile said his company has built a co-op in Bolivia that will create an organic cotton farm. He also imports natural latex from Sri Lanka.


On the domestic front, the company plans to open a 10,000-square-foot distribution center in North or South Carolina this year. The new location will allow the company to deliver its own mattresses more cheaply on the East Coast, cutting the delivery cost to the consumer from $600 to $250. Scott Carwyle said that he believed that East Coast sales, which currently make up about one-third of the firm’s sales, could double with the lower delivery charge.


Today, he’s grateful for his family’s early conversion.


“We couldn’t have done this without the move to natural. We had to find a niche where you could make quality first,” he said.


“It’s our name on that sucker and we want to make sure it’s quality out there. Switching to natural was the only way we could keep the hand-crafted quality.”

No posts to display