Normal Fiber’s Holistic Technique for Progress and nnovation » BedTimes Journal

With expanded U.S. manufacturing and achievement capabilities, the worldwide supply for bedding equipment and elements is rising its licensed, private-label and in-house manufacturers.

When Normal Fiber made the choice so as to add home pillow and pet mattress manufacturing capacities in 2021, it had no technique to know {that a} “tariff twister” was looming on the horizon.

At the moment, the corporate had a single warehouse in Henderson, Nevada. “It was getting used largely as a hub for direct-to-consumer shipments and different achievement,” says Chad Altbaier, co-CEO of the Henderson-based producer and world supply of bedding merchandise, together with mattress textiles and covers; fundamental bedding like sheets and pillows; trend and ornamental bedding; pet beds; and elements for different bedding producers. 

Realizing that manufacturing capability in the USA would strengthen its capability to serve prospects, Normal Fiber opened its first pillow meeting plant in Henderson in 2022. The 130,000-square-foot facility focuses on filling and distributing higher-end blown and garneted pet beds, sleep pillows and specialty formed pillows. Geared up with equipment sourced from Spain, the plant has high-speed, digitally managed mixing capabilities that permit it to combine as many as three fiber varieties — from polyester and wool to latex and silk — right into a single pillow.

The power is strategically situated to serve the close by Las Vegas hospitality market and West Coast prospects, who profit from native manufacturing and speedy supply.

Constructing on U.S. Success with New Atlanta Facility

Constructing on the success of the Nevada plant, Normal Fiber added a equally configured however bigger manufacturing and distribution middle in Atlanta in July 2024. The 180,000-square-foot location allows Normal Fiber to enhance service and cut back transport prices for patrons all through the jap United States.

“Our two U.S. services are meeting operations for utility pillows designed for sleep and physique, and specialty pillows and pet beds,” Altbaier says. “We convey within the empty pillow and pet mattress shells from Asia and fill them right here. Mattress pillows are the largest section of our enterprise, so having our personal meeting operation within the States allows us to be way more aware of our prospects’ wants.”

After only one 12 months in operation, the brand new Atlanta facility has already confirmed to be worthwhile, Altbaier provides. 

“We moved a portion of our Nevada manufacturing to Atlanta for these prospects who wished to meet East Coast orders from there, and we’ve picked up new incremental enterprise, as nicely,” he says. “Atlanta seems to be a improbable location, because it’s simply 4 hours from the Port of Savannah (in Georgia) and has nice entry to all the Japanese Seaboard. And it additionally has a deep pool of labor.”

Prior to now few months, Normal Fiber additionally began producing down different comforters and blankets at its Georgia and Nevada services, utilizing single-needle quilting machines introduced in from its not too long ago closed facility in Mexico. The 2 U.S. websites additionally present achievement companies. 

“We’re bringing in merchandise from Asia, equivalent to mattress toppers, sheets and trend bedding objects and stocking them domestically at our two U.S. websites,” Altbaier says. From there, Normal Fiber both ships the merchandise to retailers’ distribution facilities or drop-ships them on to shoppers, relying on what the client prefers.

To maintain up with demand, Normal Fiber not too long ago leased a further 42,000-square-foot warehouse subsequent door to its facility in Henderson. 

“Our enterprise mannequin requires strategically situated, multisite capabilities,” Altbaier says. “We work exhausting to ensure the merchandise we construct and ship have a persistently excessive degree of high quality and that all of them get to every particular person buyer as rapidly and effectively as doable.”

Strategic Adaptation: Normal Fiber Navigates Tariffs and World Commerce

This spring, that mission turned much more difficult as President Donald Trump’s tariff will increase upended world buying and selling patterns and launched a excessive degree of uncertainty into enterprise planning and sourcing selections. 

Normal Fiber opted to open each of its U.S. services lengthy earlier than the 2024 election. Although it had no technique to foresee the dramatic commerce coverage adjustments the brand new president would put into movement, the corporate acknowledged that relying too closely on a single supply nation, equivalent to China, might put it in danger in an more and more unstable world financial system.

“Having our personal pillow-filling capability within the U.S. lessened our dependence on offshore sources and put us in a greater place to serve our prospects,” Altbaier says. “Because it seems, increasing right here on the time we did was a case of good planning mixed with good luck.”

However Normal Fiber has not escaped the challenges which have include the brand new administration’s shifting tariff insurance policies. The corporate nonetheless sources a variety of uncooked supplies and merchandise offshore. It additionally sells an rising quantity of merchandise in different international locations, a few of which have applied their very own tariff will increase in response to Trump’s strikes.

On the time of this BedTimes interview in Could, Altbaier and his crew have been centered on decreasing Normal Fiber’s manufacturing in China. To fill gaps, the corporate has been bolstering sourcing from India and Pakistan, “the place we already are very sturdy,” Altbaier says, and including new capability in Cambodia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam. 

“We’ve opened our personal workplace in Vietnam as a result of we’re doing increasingly manufacturing there,” he says. “It’s necessary that we now have boots on the bottom, together with our personal high quality assurance individuals.”

Normal Fiber is planning to open an analogous workplace in Thailand later this 12 months. The corporate additionally has high quality assurance groups that work intently with main manufacturing facility companions in every of its different supply international locations.

“We’re lucky that we had already begun taking steps to dial again China earlier than the ‘tariff twister’ hit as a result of the tariff hikes are forcing everybody to rethink their sourcing,” Altbaier says. “An outmigration from China is underway throughout a variety of industries, and everyone seems to be scrambling for brand spanking new companions.”

Minimizing Tariff Impression on Prospects

When the primary 10% tariff enhance on Chinese language exports was applied on Feb. 1, Normal Fiber labored to soak up a number of the further price reasonably than passing it alongside to its prospects, Altbaier says. As commerce tensions worsened, the U.S. tariff price on Chinese language merchandise climbed briefly to 145% and China hiked its charges on U.S. items to 125%.

In Could, to cut back tensions, the U.S. dropped its tariff price on Chinese language merchandise to 30% for the following 90 days. At that time, Normal Fiber continued to soak up a part of the rise however then needed to go the majority of the extra tariff quantity to prospects.

“We’re doing all the pieces we will to maintain the pass-along to a minimal,” Altbaier says. “And we’re solely passing alongside the literal further price related to the tariff — we’re not taking any revenue margin on high of it.”

On June 26, President Trump introduced that the framework for an settlement had been reached with China that will set up a blanket tariff price of 30% for Chinese language imports.

“We’d reasonably not have a 30% tariff, however even that’s much more tolerable than the 145% tariff that was briefly in place earlier than the 90-day reprieve,” Altbaier says. “These tariff adjustments are actually difficult as a result of producers and retailers are all in the identical boat and dealing on razor-thin margins. The scenario is creating lots of whiplash and uncertainty for everyone.”

Constructing a Highly effective Model Portfolio and New Partnerships

Regardless of the worldwide financial ups and downs, Normal Fiber continues to generate strong progress. Often called a go-to supply for a variety of high-profile shopper manufacturers, Normal Fiber added a brand new accomplice to its combine — Dr. Scholl’s — in mid-2024 that has sparked a wave of recent enterprise with omnichannel retailers. Launched on the New York Dwelling Fashions Market in September, the Dr. Scholl’s bedding line options useful sleep merchandise sourced and produced by Normal Fiber, together with mattress pillows, specialty help pillows, mattress pads and toppers.

“Dr. Scholl’s has made an enormous splash within the market,” Altbaier says. “It’s probably the most profitable utility bedding license launch I’ve ever finished in my 25-year profession within the pillow and textile business.”

Collaborating with the Dr. Scholl’s Wellness crew, Normal Fiber developed three product tiers — Core, Adapt and Evolve — impressed by the model’s proprietary consolation and help applied sciences. Every tier has distinct options and pricing, providing a good-better-best product vary for shoppers already nicely acquainted with Dr. Scholl’s traces of foot and skincare merchandise.

“The interpretation of the model has been glorious with ‘help and luxury’ options and nice leveraging of applied sciences and trademarked names,” Altbaier says.

Normal Fiber’s technique contains licensed manufacturers (Tempur-Pedic and Sealy within the pet mattress class); private-label manufacturers developed for retailers; and its personal in-house manufacturers, equivalent to Nicely Conscious, PureComfort and Purene. In 2023, Normal Fiber signed a licensing cope with Highclere Citadel that gave the corporate the rights to develop and distribute an assortment of mattress, tub and pet merchandise impressed by the well-known English property, which is acknowledged worldwide as the situation of the award-winning “Downton Abbey” TV collection and films. 

With a 3rd “Downton Abbey” film set for launch on Sept. 12, Altbaier expects that shopper curiosity within the model will rise even additional. 

“We now have a few retailers which can be particularly timing their launch of the road with the film’s launch since there’s going to be a lot publicity round it,” Altbaier says.

Advertising & Inventive: Normal Fiber’s Full-Service Strategy

Recognizing the expansion potential in its model portfolio, Normal Fiber created a brand new place in 2023, appointing Trina Solomon vp of selling and types. On this function, Solomon is chargeable for private-label and in-house manufacturers, in addition to the corporate’s portfolio of licensed manufacturers.

“Trina’s background and passions are completely suited to help the expansion of our valued bedding accent and mattress model prospects,” Altbaier says, including that her tasks embody product growth, packaging, shopper surveys and advertising and marketing methods.

“In bringing a model to market, our crew works intently with our companions on each side of this system, from how a product will look to the entire packaging and messaging,” he provides. 

To help that effort, Normal Fiber has a full-scale advertising and marketing and artistic crew, with sources in the USA and Asia. Prior to now 12 months, the crew has begun utilizing synthetic intelligence to boost effectivity and develop its creativity.

As a part of model growth work, Normal Fiber does its personal shopper analysis. 

“This knowledge helps to tell our product and bundle growth, product storytelling and go-to market methods,” Altbaier says.

The Evolution from Parts to Completed Bedding

Based in 1998, Normal Fiber’s evolution from a bedding elements provider right into a full-fledged bedding accent producer began round 2010. That’s when a number of of the corporate’s main prospects determined to go direct to China reasonably than proceed sourcing elements from Normal. 

“We would have liked to switch that enterprise, so we opted to turn into a completed bedding accent producer as a complement to our OEM enterprise. By 2018, completed mattress textiles and covers had turn into a serious a part of our gross sales.”

Right now, completed bedding merchandise offered by way of omnichannel, e-commerce and D2C retailers account for about half of Normal Fiber’s whole gross sales. Bedding textiles and elements offered to mattress producers and different prospects account for the opposite half.

Normal Fiber’s unique tools producer section, led by Brandon Wells, government vp and normal supervisor, continues to search for new alternatives to deepen enterprise with mattress producers around the globe. The corporate’s product portfolio on this area contains zippered covers, protectors, pillows, pads and toppers. 

In 2019, Normal Fiber acquired the U.S. mattress ticking enterprise of Elfa Worldwide. Normal Fiber is within the strategy of refocusing this a part of its enterprise to focus on bigger prospects who want direct container shipments.

Harnessing Synergies: Integrating Design and Expertise

Normal Fiber’s presence throughout a variety of distribution channels and buyer bases offers it a dynamic platform for the cross-fertilization of concepts and capabilities. 

“From a design perspective, we’re in a position to cross-merchandise between mattress textiles and utility bedding,” Altbaier says. “We’ve leveraged quite a lot of applied sciences, together with everlasting antimicrobial remedies, cooling options and printing methods, from our textile enterprise, for instance, which have added a brand new dimension to our OEM merchandise.”

In 2023, Normal Fiber signed an unique settlement with Noble Biomaterials to convey Ionic+ antimicrobial expertise to the house textile market. The lively ingredient in Ionic+ is silver, which is completely sure inside polymer fibers and won’t wash out, in line with Noble.

Efficiency enhancements proceed to resonate with the patron, Altbaier provides. Cooling and thermoregulation are nonetheless “sizzling,” and, he provides, “Normal Fiber is frequently searching for out progressive efficiency applied sciences exterior of the house textiles market to develop superior sleep and residential good merchandise for our shoppers.”

A Sturdy Management Staff and Successful Tradition

Altbaier joined Normal Fiber as chief industrial officer in 2022 after 25 years as an government within the dwelling textiles and attire industries, most not too long ago at Allied Feather + Down. In 2023, he was named co-CEO with David Wang, a longtime Normal Fiber government. Wang has duty for the corporate’s world provide chain, splitting his time between the corporate’s workplaces in Shanghai and its 35-person workplace in Foster Metropolis, California. 

Altbaier, based mostly in Foster Metropolis, oversees the industrial aspect of the enterprise, together with gross sales, advertising and marketing and product growth. The 2 executives are a part of an 11-member management crew that features executives chargeable for wholesale gross sales, retail gross sales, advertising and marketing and artistic, the Shanghai workplace, the India workplace, U.S. operations, data expertise/environmental, social and governance features, and product growth and merchandising.

“Many on the crew have been employed or added to the senior management crew since David and I took on our co-CEO roles,” Altbaier says.

Altbaier describes Normal Fiber as having a “work exhausting, play exhausting” tradition constructed on a basis of teamwork, empowerment and mutual respect. “We’re quick paced and customer-centric, with a excessive degree of accountability, clear expectations for efficiency and a robust want to win,” he says.

Core to Normal Fiber’s mission is its dedication to ESG rules. The corporate has a sturdy ESG perform, together with a carbon-offset program for all cargo containers that it imports from Asia. The corporate’s materials duty effort contains natural cotton with World Natural Textile Normal or Natural Content material Normal certifications, recycled fibers with World Recycled Normal or Recycled Declare Normal certifications, bio-based foams with U.S. Division of Agriculture BioPreferred certification and down with Accountable Down Normal certification. It additionally presents Oeko-Tex licensed merchandise and packaging made with recycled supplies.

The ESG program is led by Kevin Dixon, vp of innovation and enterprise growth, who joined Normal Fiber in 2015 after gaining expertise within the footwear and attire industries.

Whereas most of Normal Fiber’s enterprise comes from North America — and 80% of the entire is in the USA — the corporate distributes to prospects in Asia (China and Japan), Australia, Europe and South America. The corporate can be pursuing strategic progress in Europe.

“We had a good 12 months in 2024, however 2025 is proving to be very difficult, given the entire world financial headwinds with tariffs,” Altbaier says. “Provide chains even have been disrupted, and rivals need to ‘purchase’ enterprise with subpar choices.”

Retailers are additionally dealing with pressures on margins, he provides, which has strained longtime vendor-retailer relationships.

“With our new U.S. services, we’re higher positioned to adapt to the present setting, which is full of uncertainty,” Altbaier says. “No matter what’s to return, we’ll proceed to give attention to being as sturdy a accomplice as we will for all our prospects.”