ARCHDALE, North Carolina (02 April 2012) - Sealy Canada sales were up 10.2% in the first quarter of its new fiscal year, according to a report filed by its parent company with the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission. That uptick helped spur Sealy Inc.'s worldwide sales up 2.2% to US$312.3 million.

The publicly-held mattress giant said sales for its wholly-owned Canadian subsidiary were C$47.9 million for the three months ending February 26, 2012. Sales for the comparable period were C$43.5 million.

Expressed in U.S. dollars, Sealy Canada sales were US$47.1 million, compared to US$43.5 million.

"In Canada, local currency sales increases of 10.2% translated into increases of 8.2% in U.S. dollars due to a weaker Canadian dollar," Sealy told the S.E.C. "Local currency sales performance in Canada was driven by a 15.5% increase in unit volume, offset by a 4.6% decrease in average unit selling price. The increase in unit volume and decrease in average unit selling price was attributable to strategic promotional events to drive higher unit volumes and market share."

The Canadian operation's gross profit climbed to C$19.7 million (US$19.4 million) from C$18.2 million (US$18.2 million).

"In local currency, the gross profit margin in Canada was 41.1% as a percentage of net sales, which represents a decrease of 0.8 percentage points," the company said. "This decrease was primarily driven by the impact of the promotional events discussed above relating to a decrease in average unit selling price."

Sealy Canada remains the company's largest non-U.S. division, representing 15.1% of worldwide sales.

Total international sales rose 7.7% to US$71.9 million.

Sealy president and chief executive officer Larry Rogers attributed the increase to improved results not only in Canada but in Argentina and Mexico as well.

Worldwide sales of US$312.3 million for the fiscal first quarter were up 2.2% year-over-year as Sealy reversed its year-ago loss of US$902,000 or one cent per share to report a modest profit of US$1.2 million or one cent per share.

The company's U.S. sales rose 0.7% to US$240.3 million, driven mainly by a 4.3% increase in average unit prices as unit volumes fell 4.0%.

"We delivered positive financial and operational performance in the first quarter of 2012," Rogers said in a statement. "Our positive sales, gross margin and adjusted EBITDA performance for the quarter were driven by the success of our Next Generation Stearns & Foster line, which began shipping in the fourth quarter of 2011."

Looking ahead, Rogers said the company will focus on driving performance of the Next Generation at retail while initiating the rollouts of the new, value-priced Sealy promotional line, and the premium priced Optimum by Sealy Posturepedic line - primarily in the U.S. The company did not say when these new offerings, which were introduced at the Las Vegas Market this past January, will be available to retailers in Canada.