by Gathering of manufacturing resources offers education, product overviews and networking opportunities
LAS VEGAS — Therapedic International’s 2024 Annual Group Meeting held here Jan. 25-26 brought together 40 individuals representing 17 of the company’s licensing partners from the U.S. and abroad. Six of these were from outside the U.S. with the closest being Mexico and others being more than halfway around the world in Indonesia and Taiwan.
This was also the company’s first larger-scale group meeting of its manufacturing partners since before the pandemic, the most recent one taking place in September 2019. Since then, the company has held smaller marketing and merchandising meetings, “but this was the first step at returning to the kind of meeting we used to do on an annual basis pre-pandemic,” Susan Mathes, vice president of brand relations, told Home News Now.
Holding the event around the dates of the Las Vegas Market aimed to make the trip both cost efficient for partners attending the market, while also being respectful of their time, Mathes noted.
“In this case, it was a destination market and everybody obviously stayed for the market, so it’s probably a good format because it helps our licensees with the cost of attending something like this,” added Therapedic International President and CEO Gerry Borreggine, noting that the company has also held previous events in Texas, Florida, Los Angeles and Princeton, New Jersey, where the company is based. “It’s probably a good format for us to stick with. We might do it again next year in the same way.”
In line with similar events the company has held for the past 20 years or more, this year’s event focused on three core tenets: education, new product and networking aimed at strengthening relationships.
The education component featured presentations ranging from a “brand-in-review” video and company overview to the latest on B2B advertising along with updates from various international manufacturing partners from Guatemala, Mexico and Indonesia. In addition, ISPA President Ryan Trainer gave a presentation from ISPA highlighting various legislative and trade-related issues.
Finally, the group received an overview of new and inline product including the company’s Nyx, Agility and HD Refreshed mattress lines and an overview of its licensed Tommy Bahama mattresses.
Therapedic also held a social and group dinner Thursday and Friday evenings at the Wynn/Encore, marking the start and end to a successful relaunch of the group meeting.
“We didn’t have one for almost four years because of the pandemic,” said Borreggine, noting that 90% of the company’s U.S. licensees were in attendance. “So this was a reunion of sorts.”
Borreggine said he believes the event was important for a number of reasons. This includes getting its manufacturing partners in one place where they can learn more information about the company and its business moving forward, introducing them to new products and finally helping them bond as a group whether it be during the sessions or over a meal.
“When you manage a group — and we manage a group of independent manufacturers — they each have their own business and truthfully, they each have their own agenda,” he said. “They operate autonomously from each other and in very few cases do they collaborate on products or with customers and that’s due to the nature of the independent licensing group. … They can be very responsive to their particular marketplace without regard to what anybody else is doing and that’s our strength.”
“But it’s also our weakness because that autonomy doesn’t really bode well for a unified effort to move forward as a group because they are independent.”
So the group meeting, he said, “sort of ties them together.”
They also had the chance to see in person for the first time the company’s new Nyx line launched at the Las Vegas Market.
“They all got a chance to look at it and decide, does it work for them or how would it fit for them,” he said, noting that the line also was well received by dealers at market. “They all get a chance to do that.”
But for Borreggine, the most important part of the meeting was the interaction among the company and its licensing partners. It’s a level of engagement that lets its retail customers know that the company is working to build solid relationships that will carry them through both good and challenging times to deliver the best product possible to the marketplace.
“The thing that I saw about this meeting was the personal end of it,” he said. “And because we haven’t done it in four years, I might have underestimated how important it is for this group, or any group to get together, come together, bond, play together, work together, eat together, the whole thing. And just enjoy each other’s company. That’s all a really important element to running a successful license.”
Licensees also appeared to enjoy the event, from the educational aspects of the agenda to the time spent together at meals.
“The meeting was a great success much to do with the efforts of Susan and Gerry,” said Mitch Levine, president of Therapedic of New England. “It was a nice opportunity to reconnect with the other Therapedic factories and collaborate on new products such as Nyx and Agility.”
Added Jayme Antinori-Rayburn, of Florida licensee Sleep International, “It was nice to see everybody again. I really enjoyed hearing about what our international partners have been working on as well. Therapedic always does a good job selecting vendors and new products to showcase that are useful to all licensees. I look forward to our next meeting.”
