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Dive Brief:
- Serta Simmons Bedding named Jim Loree chief executive officer, effective Monday, according to a company announcement. He is the fourth person in less than a year to hold that position.
- Loree previously worked with Stanley Black & Decker for nearly 25 years, where he served as CEO from 2016 to 2022. He is a member of the Serta Simmons Bedding board of directors.
- Current Interim Chief Executive Officer Mark Genender will remain on as board chairman and assist with a transition.
Dive Insight:
Loree is coming into an executive role that has seen substantial change within the past year.
Last June, Serta Simmons Bedding emerged from Chapter 11. About a month later, then-CEO Shelley Huff exited after two years with the company and Charlie Eitel was named chief executive. Eitel was a board member and the former chairman and CEO of Simmons Bedding.
“Charlie is an experienced industry leader with deep retailer and supplier relationships and an appreciation for the competitive environment,” Genender said at the time of the appointment, going on to state that the company’s board was “confident” that Eitel was the correct leader for the role.
That enthusiasm was short-lived. Three months after Eitel took the top role he resigned, and Genender was named interim CEO.
In his eight months as interim, Genender said Serta Simmons Bedding relaunched “a large portion” of its product portfolio, debuted national advertising campaigns, improved operating metrics and “enhanced critical retail relationships.” Genender said the company is regaining market share as a result.
In the past year, the company has also named a new chief marketing officer and a chief operations officer.
The company’s bankruptcy allowed it to reduce its debt from about $1.9 billion to around $315 million. Serta Simmons Bedding moved to invest in the business amid a turnaround that is based on product innovation, brand positioning and marketing investments, sales growth and supply chain investments.
Serta Simmons Bedding is one of the largest bedding manufacturers in North America, and owns the Serta, Beautyrest, Simmons and Tuft & Needle brands.
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Kaarin Vembar, Khareem Sudlow
