A generations-long relationship between two publicly held Triad textile companies has resulted in another collaboration launched just in time for the High Point Spring Furniture Market.
Headquartered in High Point, Culp Inc. (NYSE: CULP) subsidiary Culp Home Fashions introduced a new line of mattress fabrics, ChillSense, made partly from sustainably produced Repreve yarns made by Greensboro-based Unifi (NYSE: UFI).
Culp is one of the world's largest manufacturers and marketers of mattress fabrics for bedding and upholstery fabrics for residential and commercial furniture. Unifi is a global textile solutions provider and one of the world's leading innovators in manufacturing synthetic and recycled performance fibers. Through Repreve, Unifi has transformed more than 20 billion plastic bottles into recycled fiber for new apparel, footwear, home goods and other consumer products.
With the Spring Market rescheduled from its usual April time frame to June 5-9, the timing was ideal for the product launch via Unifi’s Repreve Mobile Tour truck, which spent Market week parked at the corner of Main and Commerce streets in High Point’s Market district, just one block away from the transit terminal.
“I think this works out well because we can promote it now in June and we'll promote (ChillSense) heavily in the Las Vegas furniture market,” Culp Home Fashions Vice President of Sales and Marketing Jeff Veach told Triad Business Journal. “We’ll be back here with it in the Fall Market in October, so we have a chance to show the product over several markets here in the short term.”
ChillSense is the latest innovation by Culp using Unifi’s Repreve yarns made from recycled plastic bottles, and advances Culp’s sustainability program. The company’s High Point manufacturing plant has achieved zero-landfill status with a goal of diverting waste at all its foreign and domestic facilities. Culp also incorporates Repreve recycled fibers in its LiveSmart Evolve line of upholstery fabrics, and since 2019 has diverted an estimated 63 million plastic bottles from the waste stream.
ChillSense is made with 30% Repreve yarns and its technology provides an instantaneous sensation of coolness to the touch.
“Fabrics made with ChillSense fibers have a high thermal effusivity — the rate at which a material can absorb heat,” said Unifi Inc. Vice President of Global Brand Sales Brian Moore. “Fabrics with high effusivity represent the ability of a textile to exchange thermal energy with the skin.”
Environmental responsibility is all well and good, but feasible sustainability also requires receptive consumers. Sustainability combined with performance is appealing to the consumer, Culp President and CEO Iv Culp told TBJ.
“f the consumer has a choice between fine furnishings and mattresses, and it has a sustainability feature, outside of price grade they're going to choose to do the right thing and would prefer to buy something that's more sustainable,” Culp said. “While we're conscious about price because that's always an important part of any buying decision, we think consumers would prefer prefer to buy something that offers sustainability.”
Like the new ChillSense fabric, the relationship between Culp and Unifi is built on sustainability. Culp has incorporated Unifi yarns — recycled and virgin — for four decades.
“Culp is in its third generation of Culps running the company, which goes back to the matriarch of the family and our founder working together back in the 1970s,” Moore said. “It’s not just a customer/supplier relationship. With Repreve we’re adding functionality to the sustainability story, so you get a plus-one effect.”
Most importantly, Iv Culp said Unifi is positioned to meet his company’s anticipated need for Repreve yarns as it ramps up ChillSense production to meet expected demand.
“We have manufacturing and sourcing operations and six countries, so for us anytime we're going to scale a product like this, while part of it's going to be made America, we have to be able to scale globally,” Culp said. “As this grows, with our partnership with Unifi we literally have no limit the capacity that we can ultimately deliver to the market.”
