The phrase "you've come a long way, baby" is probably the best way to describe Salt Lake Mattress and Manufacturing Co., which is celebrating its 106th anniversary this year by producing 500 pieces of bedding per day.
Today's mattresses and box springs with their pillow tops, polyfoam, coiled springs, wooden frames and colorful nylon and rayon materials are a far cry from the horse hair, shredded rags, cotton, dried moss and cornstalks used in mattresses when Salt Lake Mattress first got in business under Frederick Eberhardt.Salt Lake Mattress is affiliated with Serta Mattress Co., Chicago, an organization started in the 1930s that today has 27 mattress factories owned by 12 people.
One of those is Curt Crowther, who started at Salt Lake Mattress in 1974 to implement new federal flammability standards for the company. He became president in 1982 and purchased the company in 1985.
Today, Salt Lake Mattress employs 80 during the busy seasons, boasts 100,000 square feet of showroom and manufacturing space and sells its bedding in Utah, Idaho and parts of Wyoming and Nevada. Crowther is proud to be part of Utah's economy as one of the area's oldest businesses.
Eberhardt, the eighth of 11 children born to German immigrants, started Salt Lake Wire Spring Co. with a $100 loan from Continental Bank in 1892. His first location was on the second floor of a building where the Salt Palace now sits. His initial products were flat woven wire springs, cots, trundle beds, mattresses and upholstery in various sizes.
He moved the firm to its present location at 336 S. 500 West in 1906 and started with 1,000 square feet in a tin building, which is still part of the operation. Since then, Salt Lake Mattress has purchased the adjacent Continental Trailways building. Overall, it has expanded 10 times to its present 100,000 square feet.
In 1922, Eberhardt's son, Alexander, became president of the company, and later two grandsons, James A. and John Eberhardt, ran the company. Crowther's purchase of the firm ended the Eberhardt era.
Crowther said belonging to the national Serta group is a plus because all members get the benefit of $25 million in national advertising and promotional activities for Serta products.
The Serta organization has two types of accounts: national ones, which don't involve Salt Lake Mattress, and local ones, which require constant contact.
An example of a national account is Sam's Club. Crowther said Sam's Club outlets in Utah place mattress orders with Serta in Chicago, which passes along the request to Salt Lake Mattress. The items are produced and trucked to Sam's Club, but the main dealings are with Chicago.
Local accounts include hundreds of furniture stores, motels and hotels. Salt Lake Mattress employees deal directly with these outlets, and their bedding needs are filled in a short time. Crowther said Serta is the largest contract bedding manufacturer in the country, selling thousands of bedding pieces to hotels, motels, care centers and hospitals.
Over the years, mattresses and box springs have become bigger, and queen is the most popular size. In addition to twin, full and king size, Salt Lake Mattress produces mattresses for cribs.
Serta, over the years, has developed what it considers the ideal number and shape of spring coils for a mattress and box springs. The company's motto is "We make the world's best mattress," and Crowther said it only costs a few pennies a day to have the best bedding.
He estimates that 60 percent of the houses in America have bedding that has outlived its support, preventing a good night's sleep. Crowther figures that a mattress is good for about 10 years regardless of claims that some manufacturers might make regarding longer life.
Springs for mattresses and box springs are shipped to Salt Lake Mattress from Los Angeles. They are compressed and bound with wire straps. A special machine is used to prevent the springs from flying around once the strap is cut.
The springs for box springs are attached to wood frames, and then the frames go to a different department where the covers and padding are added. The covers are cut to size using computerized machines. The various parts of the materials are sewed together, and for top-of-the-line products a special machine sews fancy designs in the material.
Mattress materials are cut to size, sewed together and fitted around the springs. Then the employees use a special sewing machine to attach the pieces together. The final step is to encase the mattress or box springs in plastic wrap for shipment.
At one time, Salt Lake Mattress shipped by rail, but that became too expensive, so now the company has a fleet of trucks for delivery, Crowther said.
In addition to the mattress side of the business, the Eberhardts started and Crowther developed Sunset Manufacturing, which is unique to his factory. Using some of the equipment on which mattress and box spring components are manufactured, Sunset produces all types of bags from Du Pont Cordura material.
A horse owner who once lost some items from a saddlebag, Crowther has developed a variety of bags for dog and horse owners. For example, there are saddlebags for dogs and horses and bags for cowboys to store their ropes, boots and other items. .
A native of Ogden, Crowther received a bachelor's degree in business from the University of Utah in 1972 and an MBA from the U. in 1980 while working for Salt Lake Mattress.
To keep the Serta quality at a high level, Salt Lake Mattress is subject to inspections from its representatives in Chicago. "They tear our products apart and go over every inch to see that we are maintaining quality," Crowther said.