IHF Partners Up, Adds Custom Goods

By Staff -- Home Textiles Today, 2/25/2008 12:00:00 AM

New York —

Blanket and throw supplier International Home Fashions is making a more aggressive move into top-of-bed offerings through a new off-shore alliance; the company also unveiled a series of performance products at this month's New York Home Fashions Market.

IHF has formed an alliance with Pakistan's Amtex Ltd to become the bedding mill's U.S. hub for sales, marketing, design and distribution.

IHF has been doing some customer-specific fashion bedding, and currently has 15 patterns active at one furniture chain. But the category amounts to no more than 30% of total business, according to Tedd Smith, president. "We see this changing quite a bit," he said.

On the innovation front, one of the new offerings is the Stay-Put sheet for today's upmarket inflatable beds with top and bottom chambers. The Stay-Put comes in two forms: a single connected piece that fits over both segments like a glove, or two pieces that button together.

The company has also forged an agreement with Domestic Fabrics, a knitter from Kinston, N.C., which manufactures for the institutional market. IHF is now the exclusive supplier to the retail market of Wick-Away blankets and sheets, a cotton/poly product which pulls moisture from the body in three minutes.

Also new this market is Sleep Safe, a flame retardant blanket created from a Milliken fabric, which boasts a $29.99 retail.

"You can hold it up to a blow torch for 45 seconds and it won't burn," said Smith.