Christine Foster three PR 404.835.4524
cfoster@3atlanta.com
Katie O’Neill three PR 404.835.4527
koneill@3atlanta.com
--OSHA recognitions demonstrate company-wide commitment to workplace safety-
(ATLANTA – March 31, 2009) – Simmons Bedding Company is pleased to announce that its manufacturing facilities in Aurora, Colo.; Waycross, Ga.; Kansas City, Kan.; Honolulu; Agawam, Mass.; and Los Angeles each have been honored in recent months by their local branches of the Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA) for outstanding efforts related to the implementation and maintenance of effective injury and illness prevention programs. The company’s latest safety accolades include the Aurora plant achieving OSHA’s Voluntary Protection Program Merit (VPP Merit) status, the Waycross, Kansas City and Honolulu plants earning OSHA’s Safety and Health Achievement Recognition Program (SHARP) honor, the Agawam plant’s recertification of SHARP and the Los Angeles plant receiving the Golden Gate Partnership Recognition (GGPR) Award for Safety.
Simmons is the only major bedding manufacturer to receive such recognitions from OSHA, and the various honors further solidify the company’s position as the bedding industry’s workplace safety and health leader. Simmons posted a 2008 OSHA recordable incidence rate of 3.2, which is the lowest in the history of the company and less than half the
7.1 incidence rate posted by the furniture industry in 2008. Simmons’ incidence rate is also significantly lower than the mattress manufacturing incidence rate of 6.2 for that same period.
“At Simmons, our associates are our most important resource; therefore, we strive to establish the safest and healthiest work environment possible,” said Kimberly Samon, executive vice president of human resources. “We understand that a company is only as
(more)
OSHA Honors Six Simmons Manufacturing Facilities/ page 2
strong as its employees and, because of that, have demonstrated an ongoing commitment to safety by instituting applied education programs that stress injury and illness prevention. The awards and honors bestowed by OSHA are evidence of our employees’ hard work, and we congratulate everyone at the recognized facilities on their tremendous accomplishments.”
Simmons has worked closely with OSHA on both federal and local levels to ensure that 100 percent of the company’s plants are actively enrolled in the organization’s cooperative safety programs. These efforts have resulted in the company’s most recent OSHA recognitions, as well as additional past honors including the Phoenix plant’s recertification of its VPP Star status, the San Juan, Puerto Rico, and Charlotte, N.C., plants’ acceptance into SHARP and the San Leandro, Calif., plant’s receipt of the GGPR. In total, OSHA has formally recognized safety achievements at 10 Simmons facilities.
“Being recognized by OSHA for our safety achievements is validation that Simmons’ safety program is doing exactly what it is designed to accomplish, which is to establish a ‘culture of safety’ in our plants that involves the support and participation of every employee,” said Jonathan Dawe, Simmons’ director of safety, health, wellness and workers’ compensation. “We follow a comprehensive company-wide safety process that impacts all aspects of our plants from hiring and plant layout to identifying potential hazards. Our employees also complete monthly safety training updates on topics ranging from forklift safety to hearing protection. Our goal is accident prevention, and the program has been very successful.”
For more information on Simmons, visit www.simmons.com.
Atlanta-based Simmons Bedding Company is one of the world's largest mattress manufacturers, manufacturing and marketing a broad range of products including Beautyrest®, Beautyrest Black®, Beautyrest Studio™, BeautySleep®, ComforPedic by Simmons™, Natural Care®, Beautyrest Beginnings™ and Deep Sleep®. Simmons Bedding operates 19 conventional bedding manufacturing facilities and two juvenile bedding manufacturing facilities across the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico. Simmons Bedding also serves as a key supplier of beds to many of the world’s leading hotel groups and resort properties. Simmons Bedding is committed to developing superior mattresses and promoting a higher quality sleep for consumers around the world. For more information, visit the Company's website at www.simmons.com.
###
OSHA Honors Six Simmons Manufacturing Facilities/ page 3
This news release includes forward-looking statements that reflect Simmons Company and its subsidiaries’ (collectively referred to as “Simmons”) current views about future events and financial performance. Words such as “estimates,” “expects,” “anticipates,” “projects,” “plans,” “intends,” “believes,” “forecasts” and variations of such words or similar expressions that predict or indicate future events, results or trends, or that do not relate to historical matters, identify forward-looking statements. The forward-looking statements in this report speak only as of the date of this report. These forward-looking statements are expressed in good faith and Simmons believes there is a reasonable basis for them. However, there can be no assurance that the events, results or trends identified in these forward-looking statements will occur or be achieved. Investors should not rely on forward-looking statements because they are subject to a variety of risks, uncertainties, and other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from Simmons’s expectations. These factors include, but are not limited to: (i) competitive pressures in the bedding industry; (ii) general economic and industry conditions; (iii) the success of Simmons’s new products and the future costs to roll out such products; (iv) legal and regulatory requirements; (v) interest rate and credit market risks; (vi) compliance with covenants in, and any defaults under, Simmons’s debt agreements or instruments; (vii) Simmons’s ability to comply with the terms of the forbearance agreements or to develop and implement an organized financial restructuring on acceptable terms, on a timely basis or at all, as well as compliance by the lenders and note holders with the terms of the forbearance agreements; (viii) increased cost of credit and associated fees resulting from the forbearance extension and any waiver or modification of the senior credit facility by the lenders or any waiver or modification of the notes or other indebtedness;
(ix) lender calls requiring Simmons to immediately repay all amounts outstanding under the senior credit facility resulting from the noncompliance with the covenants which could in turn result in a default under Simmons’s subordinated notes and discount notes and Simmons Holdco’s term loan facility; (x) Simmons’s relationships with and viability of its suppliers; (xi) fluctuations in Simmons’s costs of raw materials and energy prices; (xii) Simmons’s relationship with and viability of significant customers and licensees; (xiii) Simmons’s ability to increase prices on our products and the effect of these price increases on its unit sales; (xiv) an increase in Simmons’s return rates and warranty claims; (xv) Simmons’s labor relations; (xvi) encroachments on Simmons’s intellectual property; (xvii) Simmons’s product liability claims; (xviii) Simmons’s level of indebtedness; (xix) foreign currency exchange rate risks; (xx) Simmons’s future acquisitions; (xxi) Simmons’s ability to achieve the expected benefits from any personnel realignments; (xxii) higher bad debt expense as a result of increased customer bankruptcies due to instability in the economy and slowing consumer spending; (xxiii) Simmons’s ability to maintain sufficient liquidity to operate its business; and
(xxiv) other risks and factors identified from time to time in Simmons’s reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. We undertake no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, either to reflect new developments or for any other reason.