Indiana mattress maker loses sleep over new COVID-related supply chain
delays
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[December 29, 2020]
By Timothy Aeppel
(Reuters) - Lauren Taylor's small mattress
factory in northern Indiana has managed to survive during the
coronavirus pandemic, with the help of a federal emergency loan and a
surge of purchases by cocooning customers after early shopping
restrictions lifted.
But as COVID-19 infections worsen again in the United States, the
American-made parts her company, Holder Mattress Co., relies on are
taking months to arrive, forcing customers to wait for their new beds.
"We are losing business as a result," said Taylor, who is the president
and third generation to run the nine-employee family concern in Kokomo,
Indiana.
A type of latex foam made in Connecticut, for instance, normally took no
more than five weeks to arrive; now the wait is as long as five months.
The same goes for box springs for king-size mattresses, one of the
factory's most popular offerings.
Taylor is worried the delays could worsen.
Behind the bottlenecks is the new U.S. wave of COVID-19, which has
brought record deaths and infection rates, and is starting to impact her
suppliers.
"Sometimes they’re down to skeleton crews, or they have people
quarantining, or they’re producing less because they’re observing
distances (inside the supplier plants),” said Taylor.
U.S. manufacturing output increased more than expected in November,
fueled in particular by strong motor vehicle production. But there are
signs momentum could slow as the latest COVID-19 wave keeps workers at
home and temporarily shuts factories.
The Institute for Supply Management reported a drop in business
sentiment in its November survey. A surge of infections is straining
suppliers, and production lines were being halted because of lack of
staff, manufacturers reported. Absenteeism and difficulties in hiring
workers could continue to "dampen" manufacturing until the pandemic
ends, the ISM said.
Holder is one of several small businesses Reuters has tracked through
the coronavirus pandemic and a wobbling recovery. Millions still face an
uncertain future, despite the promise of widespread vaccination next
year.
Many factories were deemed essential and kept producing earlier in the
crisis, but now they're being squeezed. Delays in deliveries have grown
in some sectors as consumer demand has outstripped supplies, and
production in the Midwest industrial heartland is hit by quarantines and
other virus-related disruptions.
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Employee Jeremy Hullinger works inside the Holder Mattress Factory
in Kokomo, Indiana, in this July 2019 handout photo. Courtesy of
Lauren Taylor/Handout via REUTERS
For Holder, the problem is compounded by their strict buy-American
policy: All the parts and materials for their mattresses are sourced
domestically. Big mattress companies, by contrast, can boost imports
if they see the need.
After the early coronavirus shutdowns caused a 70% drop in sales in
April compared to 2019, Taylor's business snapped back.
When her two Indiana retail stores in Kokomo and Carmel were able to
fully reopen, Taylor started slowly, requiring customers to make
appointments to flop around on mattresses in the showrooms.
Eventually, “we got a point where people just stopped making
appointments and started shopping like normal,” said Taylor. “It was
like: ‘Oh, we can go back to life as normal.’”
POST-HALLOWEEN SURGE
The mood began to shift around Halloween, she said, as cases rose in
the Midwest. Now Indiana is a hot spot. "Everybody knows somebody
who has it," she said.
That includes Taylor and her family. Last month, her daughter
contracted COVID-19 from her preschool teacher. Eventually, her son
contracted it as did she and her husband. None grew seriously ill,
but she still hasn’t recovered her sense of smell, she said.
Taylor expects business next year to be depressed at least through
the first quarter. It’s hard to project beyond that, she said.
"The bigger impact I see is later on," she said. She is worried
President-elect Joe Biden's administration will lift tariffs on
imports from China.
"Imports nearly tanked our industry once," she said, driving many of
her domestic parts suppliers out of business.
(Reporting by Timothy Aeppel in Los Angeles; Editing by Cynthia
Osterman)
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