Jerry Seed, owner of Mattress Factory, began manufacturing mattresses by accident. It was 18 years ago when he met a fellow in Bend who knew everything about mattresses. The man and his family had been making and fixing mattresses for generations. Seed once helped him get his equipment back when it was confiscated after the man was temporarily jailed. In return for the favor, this man taught a few workers under Seed about the trade: rebuilding mattresses.

Seed put his men to work and began a business rebuilding, and then eventually making from scratch, mattresses. ”We had three mattresses that we rebuilt and that was our start,” Seed said.

How long has the company been in business in Central Oregon?

Twenty-six years and 13 days.

Who started the business?

I bought out a furniture store in downtown (Bend) on Sept. 1, 1976. This is what evolved out of that over the last 26 years.

Tell me how the Mattress Factory got started?

It started out awfully, awfully small. We had a pair of scissors and a hand-held hog ringer machine (used for fastening bed springs and padding). It was really as arcane as you could get. But we just kept reinvesting and reinvesting.

Have you found doing business in Central Oregon favorable?

Oh sure. We’ve been growing every year for the last 12 years. We’ve had a steady increase in business each year.

How many stores do you have now? How many stores have you had in the past?

We have this one store plus our factory and store in Moxee, Wash. We had a furniture store in Bend way back, and one in Patterson and one in Sunnyside, Wash. But when business got bad in the 80s and our leases ran out, we walked away.

In the 80s, the interest rates were extremely high and people couldn’t get credit back then unless they didn’t really need it. It’s a whole different ball game now. A lot of people put their mattresses on credit cards.

How many mattresses do you make in a year?

We’re on course right now to do 20,000 mattresses this year.

Has business slowed this year because of the economy? How has it historically compared?

No. Our business is up about eight percent over the last year. It continues to grow. Even when the economy is bad, the mattress business seems to be all right. As we’ve gotten new products and developed new things and gotten our equipment more sophisticated, we continue to grow.

Why would people buy mattresses from you rather than from a national chain?

There’s not a middle man here. If you go to one of the major brand names, they’re all sold to a store that’s in the middle between the customers and the factory. Here there’s nobody in the middle so they get a better price, and a better product and better service.

Is it difficult competing with companies with cheaper labor costs from overseas manufacturing? What are your workers paid?

No, major manufacturers of mattresses are in the United States. There’s Sealy in Portland, there’s Serta in the Seattle area and there’s Spring Air in Tacoma. Our workers are paid anywhere from $8.00 an hour to $15.00, depending on what they do and how skilled they are.

How does Mattress Factory compete with makers like Sealy, Serta and Spring Air as well as distributers like Great American Furniture, department stores and Costco?

Quality in the product. We use better cushioning materials than most of the major manufacturers. We’re in a situation where we can take a little bit more time putting them together. We’re not rushing through to get a certain amount of pieces per day. We put a little more quality in everything and we want them to last. Our premium collections last 12 to 15 years. Then we have a trial period on our premium collections, so if you buy a mattress here and you’re not comfortable, you can exchange it or we’ll refund your money.