Award for waterbeds

Press, 1 October 1983, Page 22

Award for waterbeds

By

NEVIN TOPP

For the second consecutive year Dream Merchants Waterbeds, Ltd, of Auckland, has won the “International Waterbed Manufacturer of the Year” award at the waterbed convention in San Francisco. Dream Merchants’ sales manager, Miss Fern McCall, said to win the award for the second year in a row was quite astounding. A bonus was that the New Zealand firm also took the television advertising award at this year’s convention, which was held at San Francisco in March. About 600 manufacturers were at the convention, and the awards were accepted by the chairman of Dream Merchants, Mr Craig Barnes. Waterbeds were invented in 1967-68, and came onto the market in 1969. Dream Merchants was formed in

New Zealand in 1973-74 by an American, Mr Justin Hughes, and the company was taken over by Mr Craig Barnes in 1978. At that time Dream Merchants was selling 30 beds a month, but now the three waterbed manufacturers in New Zealand were selling between 1600 and 1700 waterbeds a month, “which was an incredible growth rate,” she said. Dream Merchants initially had six waterbed specialty shops but because of delays in obtaining the imported beds it was decided to sell the shops and concentrate on manufacturing the beds in New Zealand.

Except for the use of mahogany and Fijian kauri in some of the waterbeds, all the materials used in the frames and mattresses were from New Zealand, Miss McCall said.