Mattress plant location goes soft

A mattress store looks to move because fewer shoppers are coming to the city.
By DON SHILLING
VINDICATOR BUSINESS EDITOR
YOUNGSTOWN -- Nelson Bedding intends to close its 37-year-old mattress factory and store Uptown and reopen them elsewhere.
Owner Brett Pomeroy said he hasn't picked a new location but hopes to locate them in Youngstown. The company's Boardman store will remain open, he said.
Pomeroy said he has received three sale offers for the Market Street building, where his godfather, Nelson Lazar, founded the company in 1964.
Two people are considering opening bars in the building, and a local nonprofit agency is thinking about moving its offices there, he said. He expects to reach an agreement with one of the interested parties soon.
If none of the deals is finalized, Pomeroy said he will continue to look for someone to buy the building.
He said the building isn't suitable to manufacturing operations and the Uptown area isn't conducive to retail sales.
Here are reasons: Although the area has been attracting large bar crowds on the weekends, shoppers from the suburbs are becoming more reluctant to come there because they are worried about their safety, he said.
Pomeroy said the store hasn't had crime problems, other than the front windows often are broken, he said. People near the store are supporting it by shopping there, but it's not enough, he said.
"There are fewer people in the city and fewer people are willing to drive into the city," he said.
Pomeroy opened a retail store in Canfield Township in 1996 to try to reach the suburban shoppers. He moved the store to Boardman in 1999.
The building was a factor in deciding to move, he said. The building doesn't have a good area for shipping and receiving and he is afraid of running a forklift on the floors because he doesn't think they will support the weight. Having to unload trucks by hand leads to higher labor costs, he said.
The company employs 13, with six working in the factory. Nelson makes about 6,000 mattresses a year.
Pomeroy said fewer mattresses will be made at the next factory because he intends to stop making some less-expensive lines. It's too difficult for the company to make its products stand out from other brands at the lower prices, he said.
With the higher-end brands, the company can produce a better-quality mattress at a better price than national brands, he said.
Even so, he intends to add a national brand to the stores' lineup for the first time because he wants to reach out to new customers.
"The younger generation is fairly name-brand oriented," he said.
The deal isn't finalized, so he didn't want to name the brand.
Other plans: Pomeroy said he also is looking to add a store in Niles and perhaps the Akron area. He said he is considering a Niles store because Trumbull County shoppers aren't traveling to Mahoning County much anymore because so many national chains have opened in Niles.
Nelson buys mattress springs from outside suppliers and attaches padding and quilting in its factory. He buys most of the frames for the box springs, but assembles some for unusual sizes.