This is quite surprising for any businessman: Earl Kluft won’t say whether he’d buy his own products, in this case his top-of-the-line mattresses.
The hesitation certainly isn’t for lack of quality. His E.S. Kluft & Co.’s top mattress, the Palais Royale, is made of hand-tailored cashmere, mohair and Joma wool. It features 2,000 inner coils compared with the usual 800.
It’s the price tag that gives him pause. The mattress, made by Kluft’s 80 employees at his Rancho Cucamonga factory, retails for $33,275. That ultracushy mattress, sold exclusively at Bloomingdale’s, recently became available in Southern California.
“This is for someone who understands the importance of a good mattress and for whom money is no object,” explained Kluft, 61, of Beverly Hills. “If they have to think about the price, they’re probably not the customer for us.”
Apparently enough people are the right kind of customer to have boosted E.S. Kluft’s annual sales from $3.5 million to more than $30 million in the five years since he founded the company.
About 80 percent of that revenue comes from its Aireloom line, a less expensive luxury brand that runs from $2,500 to $6,000 per mattress. The rest comes from his more expensive lines; those mattresses start at $7,000 and top out with the Palais Royale, of which he sells about 50 annually.
Who would pay the price of a good new car for a mattress?
“These are people who have private jets and multimillion-dollar homes,” Kluft said. “They expect the best. And if they want something, they go out and buy it.”