Spring Air International says it has found a solution for its licensees and customers as the industry wrestles with rising costs and raw material shortages brought on by supply chain disruptions.
The top 20 bedding manufacturer will diversify its vendor partners to source spring units to help keep production up, which will enable the company to ship product to its retail partners faster. The move will also help reduce dependence on domestic raw materials and ease allocations, which have become more common in the industry.
“In these uncertain times, we need to be agile and strategic in our sourcing of materials,” says Nick Bates, president, Spring Air International. “With the supply chain under tremendous pressure, we need to mitigate the crunch —now more than ever—to support our retail partners and keep product flowing without sacrificing quality. Because we are a licensing network, we have a competitive edge in that we have more options to source globally than our purely domestic competitors.”
Spring Air has tapped its domestic licensing network as an additional resource. Spring Air Northeast is producing its own pocket coils for its own use and offering remaining inventory to other licensees.
“The drive for these changes is fueled by our commitment to our customers for timely delivery,” Bates says. “As long as we can find the same quality materials that protect the integrity of our products and don’t dramatically impact pricing, we will continue to be creative with our sourcing, which will result in a more competitive delivery schedule for our customers.”
Bates says diversifying vendors will be a permanent fix for Spring Air. “We live in a world where multi-sourcing has simply become smart business and protects our licensees from supply chain disruptions related to a single supplier.”
