Building a Better Bed: LeggettWood Springfield

For nearly 10 years, a north Springfield plant has been putting that natural element to use for the Fortune 500 diversified components manufacturer.

LeggettWood Springfield, a division of Carthage-based Leggett & Platt Inc., manufactures box springs and bed frames at its nearly 40,000-square-foot plant at 739 E. Commercial St. The products are sold to a number of other companies owned by Leggett & Platt as well as to bedding giants such as Simmons and Serta. The Springfield facility also serves as a warehouse for bed-frame and box-spring components.

“We supply all of the materials to bed-frame companies who build them for themselves, and we also do them here,” said Springfield branch manager Mike Gilliam. “What we don’t do here is the finished product. We don’t put cloth on them; we don’t spring them here anymore. We just build the flat foundation and sell the raw materials.”

Close to Carthage

Location is the key for the Springfield plant, one of seven in the LeggettWood division, which has its headquarters in Bridgeville, Pa.

The Commercial Street property abuts the railroad, allowing it to easily ship anywhere in the country. And the facility is close to Leggett’s Carthage world headquarters.

LeggettWood Springfield is on the site of former Miller Manufacturing & Lumber Sales Inc., which Leggett & Platt purchased in 1997 from Gary Miller, who had owned it since 1977.

“Springfield is a good location for us because of its proximity to our customer base in the midwestern region of the United States and the reliable team of employees that we currently have in place,” said Steve Yurchak, president of LeggettWood, from the Pennsylvania headquarters.

The facility includes two loading docks, four enclosed buildings and five lean-to structures on the property, which backs up to railroad tracks. The company ships by rail, by Leggett & Platt company trucks and through local trucking companies. About 10 trucks are loaded with bed-frame lumber and shipped out each week.

Leggett & Platt-owned Canadian mills produce the lumber for the Springfield plant, but LeggettWood Springfield can supplement or mill its own if needed.

“It’s all inner-company, so we’re selling it to ourselves. It just makes sense,” said Gilliam.

New business

Officials at the Springfield plant plan to hire up to a half-dozen new employees soon with the addition of a new line of business: crating ladders manufacturing.

Crating ladders are used in crating box springs, Gilliam said. LeggettWood Springfield recently purchased a $250,000 machine that will produce 16 crating ladders per minute.

“We’ll be producing and selling those not only to our company but to other companies as well,” Gilliam said.

The machine was moved to Springfield in June after operating for more than two years at a Canadian LeggettWood plant in Levis, Quebec.

Gilliam said his team is thrilled to add more employees and a new manufacturing line to their plant.

The centralized Springfield location was the reason for relocating the machine, which, ironically, was built in Carthage.

“The machine was relocated to Springfield because our ever-changing market demands, and conditions currently make the Springfield location our best choice,” Yurchak said. “The move also allowed us to sell the Levis, Quebec, property and reduce our overhead.”

Leggett worldwide

Yurchak said revenues for LeggettWood were not available; however, Leggett & Platt Inc. had revenues of $5.3 billion in 2005. Leggett & Platt, publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol LEG, has more than 33,000 employees in more than 300 locations worldwide.

Gilliam, who worked for Miller Manufacturing for several years before it was purchased by Leggett & Platt, said the company has been great to work for. He was promoted to branch manager in January.

“I was really pleased when Leggett & Platt bought us out,” he said. “We’ve taken a lot of steps around here … to better our work environment.”

The office is currently under remodel.

LeggettWood Springfield

Owner: Leggett & Platt Inc.

Founded: 1997

Address: 739 E. Commercial St.,

Springfield, MO 65803

Phone: (417) 865-3563

Fax: (417) 866-6577

Web site: www.leggettwood.com

Products: Box-spring and bed-frame components.

Employees: 7

Chances are…

With Leggett & Platt’s wide diversification and market penetrations, chances are that you:

• sleep on a bed made with Leggett components – box spring, innerspring, foam and fiber;

• relax in a recliner that has an L&P motion mechanism powering it;

• shop in stores that have products displayed on L&P shelving; or

• barbeque on a grill that’s made of Leggett cast aluminum.

L&P History

J.P. Leggett and C.B. Platt were both residents of Carthage, when they formed their business partnership in 1883.

Leggett was an inventor and had several patents to his credit. When he developed the idea for a spiral steel coil bedspring, he went to his brother-in-law, Platt, for his manufacturing capability and expertise.

Together they produced the L&P bedspring, patented in 1885.

Their partnership prospered and the business was incorporated in 1901. The company has operated continuously since then, and began its fourth decade of public ownership in 1997.

The modern growth era for the company began in the 1960s, when current executive management assumed leadership. Being substantially invested in Leggett stock, then and now, management developed a plan to enhance the potential for long-term growth. The strategy is a proven success, resulting in leading manufacturing, marketing and distribution capabilities.

The company produces a wide variety of goods ranging from furnishing components to raw materials and equipment, including a line of finished products for home and commercial applications. With facilities throughout North America and in several locations in Europe and Asia, Leggett & Platt supplies components and materials to manufacturers, retailers and distributors of home, office and institutional furnishings, commercial displays and fixtures, and specialty industrial products.

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