ALEXANDRIA, Va.–In a dispute over two mattress-industry issues, top 10 mattress manufacturer Englander has departed from the International Sleep Products Association, and Kevin Toman, the company’s president, has resigned from ISPA’s board of trustees.
Toman said Englander took this action because of the presence of Rick Anderson, president of Tempur-Pedic North America, as ISPA’s chairman. In June, Tempur-Pedic filed suit against Englander, Sealy, Simmons, Serta and other manufacturers regarding their use of mattress constructions using Tempur-Pedic proprietary design and construction in some of their mattresses. “I felt that Rick was compromising his position (as ISPA chairman) because of this suit,” Toman told HFN.
In addition, Toman took issue with ISPA for its lack of response to a tariff imposed on imports of innersprings from China. “ISPA did nothing,” he said. “It should have supported the manufacturers that said it was not dumping.”
Contacted by HFN, Anderson said, “The ISPA board of trustees stands unified regarding my continued leadership. The entire ISPA board is disappointed that Englander has made the decision to separate from the industry association. We are hopeful that they will reassess the value of ISPA membership going forward and will elect to rejoin the association at a future date.”
Dick Doyle, ISPA’s president, expressed his disappointment over Englander’s decision as well. Doyle said a survey of the association’s trustees uncovered “tremendous support for the leadership that Rick Anderson is providing. Tempur-Pedic’s patent infringement lawsuit has nothing to do with the affairs of ISPA, nor the agenda that we are pursuing on behalf of our industry.”