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ROME, Ga. – Fifth-generation-owned Heritage Sleep Concepts has more than doubled its retail base, invested in new machinery, expanded into six states and tripled its manufacturing footprint over the past eight years.
The company traces its roots back 105 years when J.H. Sanford started Sanford Mattress in 1918 and sold mattresses door-to-door. Claude Sanford took the reins of the operation from his father in the 1940s and then taught his son-in-law Terry Spears the craft of making mattresses.
In 1973, Spears started his own mattress manufacturing business as Spears Mattress Co. and later sold the company in 2006 before retiring in 2011. Heritage Sleep was founded in 2015, when the Spears family, led by Terry, reentered the bedding segment.
Today, the company is owned and operated by Spears’ daughter and son-in-law Frankie Beck and Kristi Beck, along with their sons Jordan and Jamie. The company expanded into its 120,000-square-foot facility in 2020 from a 40,000-square-foot factory where Heritage Sleep got its start. Spears died in 2021 at the age of 76.
The manufacturer attributes much of its growth over the past eight years to its licensing partnership with Bedding Industries of America’s Eclipse and Eastman House brands.
“BIA’s Eclipse and Eastman House are such amazing brands that even though we started from scratch in our territory eight years ago, retailers were excited to have our products on their floors,” Frankie Beck said. “The certifications that the brands carry certainly helped in attracting the dealers and their shoppers. The result is that, in less than a decade together, we have more than doubled our account base and expanded our business into six surrounding states.”
Heritage has expended its partnership with retailers like Ashton Home Furniture in Ashton, Ga., and Anniston, Ala.-based MattressMax where both of the dealers have added more than 10 new Eclipse models and beds from the Ernest Hemingway collection, along with Heritage Sleep mattresses.
Mattresses from the Bedding Industries of American lineup were among the first beds to come down the company’s manufacturing line in 2015. Today, the Georgia factory produces Eastman House and Chittenden & Eastman in addition to the Hemingway and Eclipse lines.
“When Terry approached me asking to become a licensee of our Eclipse and Eastman House, I was very pleased to be able to help,” said Stuart Carlitz, CEO of Bedding Industries of America. “Through our brands’ high-quality specifications and certifications, we are able to help licensees like Heritage Sleep grow and prosper. Seeing Heritage Sleep thrive has been extremely fulfilling and confirms how working together to achieve our mutual goals can truly drive progress.”
