Pompano Beach, Florida — Valley Forge Fabrics, Inc., the largest supplier of decorative hospitality textiles in the world, has launched a bedding division which promises to be equal in size to its original fabrics business for upholstery and drapery over the next decade according to Ahmet Sapmaz, vice president, strategic global business development.

After four years in the bedding business, about the time that Sapmaz joined VFF, Radisson became the first hotel brand in the Americas to provide its guests with a new line of VFF bed linens made from Eucalyptus trees utilizing a new yarn for weaving fabric called Tencel+Plus™ Lyocell.

“There are seven or eight major brands worldwide who are set to announce a switch to Tencel+Plus™bedding products from Valley Forge," said Ken Koneck, a spokesman for Valley Forge who works closely with Sapmaz.

“Today, bedding is 20-percent of our business but it will triple in the next two years alone," said Sapmaz. “This is a bigger volume business than fabrics or drapery. Hotels are ordering for 100,000 beds. This is a very different business from piecegoods or drapery.”

Also, Sapmaz said the new bedding division is expected to grow at a more rapid rate than the original fabrics business. Towels are also available in the new program to coordinate with the bedding, he said.

The fiber is made by Lenzing of Austria under an exclusive agreement with Valley Forge Fabrics and is blended with cotton or polyester while the bedding is woven in Pakistan and India at selected and certified mills, according to Sapmaz.

Radisson has also announced that Valley Forge Fabrics bed sheeting is the standard for its BLU boutique brand and the duvet is also standard in all the Radissons in the Americas. Radisson Hotels in the Americas began to order the linens and duvets on March 31, 2011. VFF also has a separate agreement with Louisville Bedding for manufacturing filled insert products made in the USA for hospitality.

All of this fits in with VFF’s philosophy to be a green company, to do business with green suppliers and to be a sustainability champion. VFF feels that its new sheeting is superior to organic cotton, “which is more a myth than reality,” Koneck said.