Essentia Organic Mattresses Now Available at Bed’r Mattress Company!

Essentia is proud to partner with Bed’r Mattress bringing Essentia natural memory foam mattresses to two new authorized showrooms in Tennessee and Georgia.

“How we got here is quite the story, and Chad tells it best in his own words, but ultimately Essentia offers a product that fits their values and one Bed’r is proud to introduce to their clients. Bed’r showrooms are the first in which Essentia mattresses share the floor with other mattress concepts, but putting Essentia in the lineup shows the Bed’r Mattress commitment to understanding wellness through sleep and sharing that with their clients.” Jack Dell’Accio, CEO & Founder, Essentia

“We, at Bed’r Mattress, could not be more appreciative to Jack and his team for allowing us this opportunity. We take pride in taking care of our customers, in offering them something that truly will be a solution to their problems.  We now have that solution for each and every customer that walks in our doors, and without Jack and Essentia, that would not be possible” Chad Cunningham, Bed’r Mattress

Essentia has corporate showrooms with 11 locations across the US and Canada, working with Bed’r Mattress and knowing that their goal is to provide their clients with healthier products makes Essentia even more accessible to customers who may have never considered how their mattress affects their health and wellness.

As the world’s only natural memory foam, Essentia was born to solve a void in the market by offering a pressure relieving mattress that offered a clean air environment, free of stimulants. All Essentia products are manufactured in Essentia’s GOLS and GOTS certified organic factory, and are the only mattresses to offer all 6 key elements of whole body recovery including sleeping cool, allergy free, pressure relief and optimized REM sleep.

Essentia Mattress and Bed’r Mattress in Chad’s Own Words:

We are overly excited about partnering up with Essentia Mattress Company. We opened our doors in 1992 and have been fortunate to have been able to offer some of the most innovative sleep systems for over 27 years. My father, Ed Cunningham, started out in the waterbed industry.  He has seen it all, waterbeds, innerspring, air, memory foam, even smart beds. The moment he was introduced to Essentia, he placed an order for personal use. He has slept on pretty much every sort of mattress that one could in a lifetime, and he claims that nothing compares to an Essentia Mattress.  My father is a very passionate and wise man (it’s a shame that gene skipped a generation!), and when he made that statement, I knew we had found something special in Essentia.

The Essentia partnership all began in Valdosta, Georgia.   The owner of the Georgia stores, Jay Lewis, operates his mattress store independently.   A former major league baseball player came into his store looking for a mattress. This particular individual had very specific requirements for his new sleep system.   At Bed’r Mattress, we work directly with manufacturers in the developing our own brand of mattresses, mattresses for all walks of life, and in my opinion, some of the best mattresses in the industry.   However, I was shocked to be told by Jay that we didn’t have anything to suit this individual.  The proud side of me was instantly thinking, “yea right,” that guy is clueless!! Little did I know, that pride would very soon convert into a great deal of respect and appreciation.   The former major league player went on to buy an Essentia mattress off of the Essentia website. He was so impressed with Jay that he reached out to Jack Dell’Accio (Essentia CEO) to see if he might have any interest in teaming up with us.  Ironically, the story of Bed’r Mattress and Essentia begins with Jack stealing one of our customers!

In the ensuing days, Jack agreed to have me down to Florida to meet with him and discuss a partnership with Essentia.   To be honest, I really wasn’t overly excited, rarely do these long trips lead to anything more than my disappointment. I took the approach that I would get around to it when it was convenient and then realized that with that attitude, that would be never!   I felt like I owed it to our company, however, to at least say “well, I went.” I didn’t tell anyone that I was going, as I didn’t want to cause any unnecessary excitement. It was a scheduled one day trip down to Florida, I had played college baseball nearby, so I had an old friend I could stay with for the night.   I arrived in Florida, I was to contact Jack when I landed. I called and got his voicemail twice in a row while aimlessly driving up I-95. I remember thinking to myself, “well, at least I’ll get to see an old friend out of this trip.” A few minutes later, Jack called and let me know where to go and informed me that he was on his way. I would soon realize the decision to make the trip was the single greatest and most impactful decision I had made for Bed’r Mattress.

I walked into the Boca Raton Essentia mattress store and was gracefully met by Jack and Shireen (the store manager).   I feel like Jack and I immediately hit it off, as if we were rekindling as opposed to meeting for the first time. We chatted for a while about anything and everything but mattresses.  I always enjoy and am impressed by someone that will first relate to you by expressing self-interest in you as a person, especially when the core nature of the meeting was based on business.   After the conversation, Jack and Shireen introduced me to the product line that is Essentia. We walked through each mattress one by one, them explaining to me the fine details of each of them, along the way.   After I had tried out the last mattress, Jack asked me, “so what do you think?” I looked him in the eyes, and I said, “I’ve been doing this for a long time, and I have learned to approach these types of meetings with tempered expectations, please don’t think I’m only telling you this because I’m in your presence, but you have the best mattresses (all seven) that I have seen in my entire life.”  Jack is a very humble individual, and I could sense his appreciation for hearing this about something that he has committed so much of his time and passion towards. That passion and time become completely transparent the moment you lie down on one of his mattresses.

Moments later, we walked across the street to have lunch and discuss further details.   Once again, the conversation started with an inquiry to each other’s life and family, I can say I enjoyed that as much as any part of my trip.   We dove back into the partnership topic and really were trying to figure out if it were even a real possibility. I never wanted something to happen for my company so bad that had so much uncertainty.  Jack didn’t set up his company to partner with another retailer, he developed his company to serve his customer’s directly, which I admire because he could truly control his levels of customer service by being directly involved.   We decided we would touch base with one another in a few days to see if we could make it work. I remember him asking me how many mattresses that I intended to bring on-board (Jay told me just to pick 3-4), and I responded “how could I possibly leave any of them out, they all make sense, they all are great, I would feel like I was doing a person a disservice to not allow them to choose the same way that I did.”  Jack chuckled and said ‘that is great.”

I left that store so excited.  One by one, I called and/or texted everyone corporately involved with Bed’r Mattress (Jay Lewis, Michael Thompson, Jimmy Welch, Christina Burnette, Nicole Koewler, and my dad) to share with them my excitement.   I think they could all tell the authenticity of my excitement, as I rarely uncage it. I remember Jimmy, Michael, and Christina telling me, “wow this must be something, it’s not like you to make such a bold statement.”   Then I realized, I had sat the bar amazingly high for Essentia, and maybe that wasn’t a great idea! The best part is that when the product arrived, my excitement didn’t need to transfer over to them, they developed their own, they understood, they too were experiencing the greatest mattresses they’ve ever seen in their lives.  

Here we are, now official partners with Essentia Mattress.  By the months’ end, we will have 6 Essentia galleries fully set up and operational.   We, at Bed’r Mattress, could not be more appreciative to Jack and his team for allowing us this opportunity.   We take pride and taking care of our customers, in offering them something that truly will be a solution to their problems.  We now have that solution for each and every customer that walks in our doors, and without Jack and Essentia, that would not be possible. There has never been a time in my career where I could see as much joy and anticipation from our team.   We are forever grateful for you entrusting us with your brand and will promise to treat it with great delicacy and respect.

In life, we always encounter little cliches, one of which (if you can’t beat them, join them) couldn’t possibly be more fitting for the whole coming together of this partnership.  So we would like to give an extra and sincere sense of gratitude to Jack Dell’Accio for stealing one of our customers! 😉

Chad Cunningham
Bed’r Mattress

Since 1991, Bed’r Mattress has been working to build relationships with everyone in the community around our mattress stores. From our employees and local manufacturers, to you, our all-important customers, we are thankful for each of you who has chosen to be a part of our journey towards building one of the finest places to find a top-quality mattress for sale. At Bed’r Mattress, we have helped thousands of people sleep Bed’r as we have expanded from Maryville, TN across East Tennessee and into Georgia. When people sleep Bed’r, they feel better, making our community happier and healthier!