Bedding exec carousel: Two major players rotate
Pay close attention. This column gets kind of confusing. Sorry about that. A few years ago, Bob Hellyer was president of Simmons and then the company made some changes and said he was leaving and that Simmons didn’t need a president after all. Hellyer was out of the industry for a couple of years.
Meanwhile, Jim Nation was president and CEO of Spring Air, where he did a great job. And then, in the summer of 2007, Spring Air was unified under one ownership structure and the company announced that, well, Nation was out as CEO but would remain as president.
And the new CEO of Spring Air was … Bob Hellyer. And then a month later Spring Air announced that Nation had resigned as president. So Hellyer was back in the saddle and Nation was out.
And then, a couple of weeks ago, Spring Air announced, suddenly, that Hellyer had resigned and that a new office of the chairman had been created to head the company. No reason for Hellyer’s departure was given. There seldom is in situations like that. And with that, Hellyer was out of a job again.
Meanwhile, bedding’s No. 3 producer, Serta, got on a hot streak and began gaining share on its biggest rivals, Sealy and Simmons. Serta President Bob Sherman made some smart moves, including opportunistic hires of strong executives who became available as bedding’s big league players shuffled their lineups. And then, just the other day, he plucked one of the biggest plums for Serta. Yes, Jim Nation, who had been in the bedding wilderness, was back. He was named president of sales development at Serta, a new position. He reports to Sherman.
And that, dear readers, is where the bedding ball game stands. The tables that had turned against Jim Nation suddenly turned against Bob Hellyer, almost at the same time that they turned back toward Jim Nation. Got all that?
This just goes to show that things can change quickly and unexpectedly in the mattress business, especially when companies have demanding private equity owners.
It also shows how Bob Sherman is willing to make big moves. How many presidents would bring in the former president and CEO of a major rival? Now bedding’s hottest producer has two top leaders of considerable ability. They are said to get along well together. This looks like a powerful team.
Meanwhile, Spring Air, which once had Hellyer and Nation on its team, now has neither.
Welcome to the topsy-turvy world of mattress management. Which reminds me: Where is Dave McIlquham these days? I hear there’s an opening at Spring Air.