Westex enters U.S. market

By Staff -- Home Textiles Today, 7/24/2006 1:49:00 PM

Las Vegas -- Westex officially entered the U.S. market today at the Las Vegas Show. The Canadian manufacturer of premium down comforters and pillows is now a division of Leggett & Platt's Canadian operation.

The group's initial channel strategy for the United States will be similar to that of Southern Textiles, a Leggett & Platt division selling comforter sets, sheets and mattress protectors: sleep shops, furniture stores and specialty linens stores. But going forward, Westex will also reach out to department stores, specialty stores and hospitality, said Richard Downing, president of Leggett & Platt's Top of Bed Division.

Westex's top-of-the-line duvets made from Hutterite white goose down from Canada (Westex buys 90% of the country's available down) retail from $200 to $399. In Vegas, the division also debuted a less lofty down blanket made of Asian down that will retail full/queen at $99 in a 94-inch-by-90-inch. construction.