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11.07.2007
Freudenberg Expands Customer Support Program for
Celestia® Users
Aim is to Help Small Manufacturers Achieve FR Compliance
Lowell, MA, November 7, 2007 -- Freudenberg North America has
boosted its commitment to helping small mattress manufacturers
meet new FR requirements enacted by the CPSC in July.
This effort, which is part of the company’s “Value Proposition” is
part of a broader campaign that will help smaller manufacturers achieve
and sustain ongoing compliance with the newly enacted regulations.
The enactment of these regulations is proving to be a challenge to many
small producers who are not able to devote the necessary energy and resources
needed to achieve smooth compliance with the qualification process.
As recent audits of selected manufacturers have shown, compliance is
not limited strictly to manufacturing issues, but also to record keeping,
comprehensive documentation and familiarity with the regulations themselves.
Working in conjunction with the Lilly Management Group of Chicago, which
is a consulting firm to the bedding industry, Freudenberg has underwritten
a prototype development program that will assure the implementation and
documentation of FR materials using the manufacturer’s own mattress
design to demonstrate compliance.
According to Freudenberg’s Bedding Market Manager Ashutosh Karnik,
the purpose of the program is to remove the burden from small manufacturers
of setting up the entire program and having to go through the trial and
error process that many of them are simply not equipped to do. “We
want to take the doubt out of the process for them, so that they can
focus on doing what they do best, which is to make mattresses”,
Karnik said.
“This is the type of commitment is typical of how Freudenberg
approaches new markets”, says Karnik, adding that it is part of
the long term strategy that is typical of what should be expected from
an established world class company that has been in business for a century
and a half. “At Freudenberg, we take the approach that every manufacturer
has a set of requirements that are unique to them. It’s a little
like structural DNA, and our job is to figure it out”.
For the small manufacturer, according to Karnik, complying with a Federal
audit process is a major challenge. Many of these operations are small
family businesses, and they have their hands full just getting product
out.
Freudenberg’s Consultative Selling is designed to help customers
and potential customers not only get through the rigor of government
regulations but also to assure that all of their mattresses get to market
with the same feel and appearance they had before FR materials were added,
something that has been high on the agenda of most manufacturing companies
since the regulations were first announced.
Freudenberg North America is a leading manufacturer of structural components
and FR materials for the bedding industry. The company’s products
are manufactured under the brand name Celestia. Freudenberg North
America is a division of Freudenberg & Company, based in Weinheim,
Germany. Freudenberg & Company is a global leader in the field of
technical textiles with operations in 34 countries and annual revenues
in the $ 7 billion range.
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