Hickory is a city located primarily in Catawba County, with formal boundaries extending into Burke and Caldwell counties. The city lies in the U.S. state of North Carolina. At the time of the 2020 census, Hickory's population was 43,490. Hickory is the principal city of the Hickory–Lenoir–Morganton Metropolitan Statistical Area, in which the metro population at the 2020 census was 365,276. Hickory is located approximately 60 miles (97 km) northwest of Charlotte, North Carolina.
Upholstery is the work of providing furniture, especially seats, with padding, springs, webbing, and fabric or leather covers. The word also refers to the materials used to upholster something.
A mattress is a large, usually rectangular pad for supporting a lying person. It is designed to be used as a bed, or on a bed frame as part of a bed. Mattresses may consist of a quilted or similarly fastened case, usually of heavy cloth, containing materials such as hair, straw, cotton, foam rubber, or a framework of metal springs. Mattresses may also be filled with air or water.
Textron Inc. is an American industrial conglomerate based in Providence, Rhode Island. Textron's subsidiaries include Arctic Cat, Bell Textron, Textron Aviation, and Lycoming Engines. It was founded by Royal Little in 1923 as the Special Yarns Company. In 2020, Textron employed over 33,000 people in 25 different countries. The company ranked 265th on the 2021 Fortune 500 of the largest United States corporations by revenue.
Memory foam consists mainly of polyurethane with additional chemicals that increase its viscosity and density. It is often referred to as "viscoelastic" polyurethane foam, or low-resilience polyurethane foam (LRPu). The foam bubbles or ‘cells’ are open, effectively creating a matrix through which air can move. Higher-density memory foam softens in reaction to body heat, allowing it to mold to a warm body in a few minutes. Newer foams may recover their original shape more quickly.
Upholstery coil springs are an important part of most modern upholstery. The consumer usually never sees the construction features of an upholstered piece. The overall quality of the materials and construction dictate the comfort level of an upholstered piece and its ability to satisfy the consumer over the long term. A basic upholstered piece may be composed of a frame, springs, foam, cushioning, padding, and textiles.
Federal-Mogul Corporation is an American developer, manufacturer and supplier of products for automotive, commercial, aerospace, marine, rail and off-road vehicles; and industrial, agricultural and power-generation applications. It was acquired in February 2022 by Apollo Global Management.
A sofa bed or sofa-bed is a multifunctional furniture typically consisting of a sofa or couch that, underneath its seating cushions, hides a metal frame and thin mattress that can be unfolded or opened up to make a bed. A western-style futon differs from a sofa bed, although sofa beds using futon mattresses are common.
Serta is an American company based in Hoffman Estates, Illinois, that specializes in developing and manufacturing mattresses. It was founded in 1931 in Illinois as Sleeper, Inc. by 13 mattress manufacturers who licensed the Serta name; subsequently, eight independent licensees acting like a cooperative owned the company. Afterwards, it was controlled and operated as Serta International by its largest licensee, National Bedding Company. In 2005, two private equity groups teamed up to purchase National Bedding Co.--The Ares Corporate Opportunities Fund, the Los Angeles-based private equity fund of Ares Management; and Teachers’ Private Capital, the private equity arm of the Ontario (Canada) Teachers’ Pension Plan. The American company Serta International is a subsidiary of the American company Serta Simmons Bedding, LLC of Doraville, Georgia. Other licensees include Serta Dormae in Texas, Serta Restokraft in Michigan, and Salt Lake Mattress in Utah.
The Simmons Bedding Company is an American major manufacturer of mattresses and related bedding products, based in Atlanta, Georgia. The company was founded in 1870, and is one of the oldest companies of its kind in the United States. Simmons' flagship brand is Beautyrest. In addition to operating 18 manufacturing facilities in the United States and Puerto Rico, the company licenses its products internationally. According to a Simmons press release, net sales for 2005 were $855 million, and its revenue was $1.13 billion in 2007 and $1.228 billion in 2013. As of 2011, Simmons ranked in third place among U.S. mattress manufacturers, with a 15.7 percent market share. In 2012, Simmons and its sister company Serta International were acquired by American private equity company Advent International. As of 2022, Simmons is a subsidiary of the American company Serta Simmons Bedding, LLC of Doraville, Georgia. On January 23, 2023, Serta Simmons Bedding filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
Sealy is an American brand of mattresses marketed and sold by Tempur Sealy International. It draws its name from the city where the Sealy Corporation originally started, Sealy, Texas, United States.
Leggett & Platt (L&P), based in Carthage, Missouri, is an American diversified manufacturer that designs and produces various engineered components and products that can be found in homes and automobiles. The firm was founded in 1883, and consists of 15 business units, 20,000 employee-partners, and 135 manufacturing facilities located in 18 countries.
Spring Air Company is a mattress company based in the United States. It was founded in Chicago in 1926 when Francis Karr patented a mattress design with free-end coils. Because of the heavy weight, high transportation costs, and low value per unit weight of mattresses, they are often manufactured locally. The company is thus a licensing organization, with local licensees manufacturing the mattresses under a common name for national marketing. Like a cooperative, the licensees own the Spring Air name. Spring Air has factories across the world.
In 2019, North Carolina's total gross state product was around $591 billion.
Hills Limited (Hills) is a publicly listed industrial conglomerate company (ASX:HIL) with branches across Australia and New Zealand. Hills is the evolution of Hills Hoist Ltd, the company founded by Lance Hill and Harold Ling in 1948 to manufacturer the Hills Hoist clothesline. Today Hills is a value-added distributor of security and surveillance systems, IT infrastructure, nurse call and patient engagement technology.
Poltrona Frau is a furniture-maker founded in 1912 by Sardinian-born Renzo Frau in Turin, Italy, headquartered since the early 1960s in Tolentino, Italy and specializing in leather seating for interior and automotive applications. The company name combines "Poltrona", the Italian word for armchair, and "Frau," the last name of its founder.
England, Inc. is an American manufacturer of upholstered furniture. They are based in New Tazewell, Tennessee, and were founded in 1964 by Charles England and sons Eugene and Dwight “whose goal was to provide an employment alternative for the people in their region of Appalachia.” England Furniture is well known in the industry for pioneering a method of rapid delivery of custom furniture through its proprietary transportation system. In addition to manufacturing, England Furniture sells its furniture through furniture stores across America and Canada. In the same year, England Furniture was acquired by La-Z-Boy.
Shifman Mattress Company is a manufacturer and distributor of handcrafted sleeping mattresses. The mattresses are made using hand-tufting techniques, eight-way hand-tied boxsprings and natural materials. In addition, Shifman Mattresses are two-sided. The company's headquarters are located in Newark, New Jersey.
UFP Technologies, Inc., founded in 1963 and based in Newburyport, Massachusetts, is a designer and custom manufacturer of components, sub-assemblies, products and packaging utilizing highly specialized foams, films, and plastics primarily for the medical market.
Mattress coils, also known as mattress springs, are coil springs used in a mattress. Coils are primarily used in the core of innerspring mattresses, which is their original use. In recent years, small "micro-coils" are being used in the upholstery of mattresses, primarily with a coil core, but sometimes with other core types.
