Company launching Embed

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This article was published 23/06/2023 (945 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Rob Enns’ and Mike Solmundson’s Winnipeg millworks and cabinetry shop, Wood Products Unlimited, has made all sorts of products for homes and commercial spaces, including Murphy beds, since 2009.

During the pandemic, they could not get access to the mechanisms they needed for those wall beds so they stopped making them but they knew there was consistent demand.

It made them think that they could produce a made-in-Canada solution that looked better than what you’d see on television shows from the ’50s.

This week, they are launching their version of the wall bed, called Embed, made in Winnipeg with all-Canadian materials.

There probably hasn’t been a better time for a space-saving furniture design with housing availability and affordability stretched thin across the country.

“Condo owners, people who are downsizing, people who want to turn their second or third bedroom into an exercise room or office but still want the chance to have a guest room… this product lends itself to that,” Solmundson said.

Their patent-pending design (the patents on the 100-year old Murphy bed design have long since expired) features a metal-framed exoskeleton and high tensile springs that make raising and lowering the bed effortless.

The partners are so confident in the sustainability of the design that they are offering a lifetime warranty.

(The bed was tested at RRC Polytech and is certified to withstand 2,500 pounds, but Enns said the test results went as high as 3,500 pounds.)

“This is not going to be something that will end up in land fill in 10 years, worn out and shot,” said Enns.

It also makes installation much easier, giving them the ability to take the parts in separately and assemble it in the room it is to be placed in, rather than the old wall bed designs that required two very strong people to lug the unit into a room, negotiating stairways and hard to access basement spaces.

“We saw the weak design elements and pain points in delivering a fully assembled piece,” said Enns. “Having a metal frame around your wood parts gives it a nice look and it has strength and durability that you won’t find in other products.”

Having their own production facility at their disposal — Wood Products Unlimited has a staff of 17 and room to expand if Embed orders start stacking up — allows them to keep close control of every aspect of the quality. (The Winnipeg firm Hunter Wire Ltd. will make all the metal parts and has assured the Embed guys they can handle up to 150 orders per month before they would have to worry about their own expansion.)

Enns and Solmundson are prepared to take it slow, committing to the first 50 sales at least to be restricted to the Winnipeg area so they can personally do the installations themselves to make sure there are no tweaks necessary.

“We are big on taking care of our customers,” said Enns.

As an early incentive, the first 50 sales will include a $1,000 mattress from Haven Sleep Co., a Kelowna company that Enns said shares Embed’s values and Canadian content commitments.

Judy Boldt, the principal at Sequence Interior Design of Winnipeg, has worked with Enns and Solmundson in the past and is pumped about the effectiveness of a product like this.

“I think there are a lot of younger people out there with smaller places who would like to have a guest room but they don’t have the space for it,” she said. “What I think will be the attraction is the flexibility of the Embed.”

That may be the problem that the Embed solves, but the value-add is the elegance of the design.

“Lots of Murphy bed furniture looks like a box set against the wall. This looks like millwork,” she said. “If you custom make them they look more built in, almost invisible. This is a good compromise between a piece of furniture and a piece of millwork.”

Embed will be sold exclusively online, direct to consumers, although conversations are already taking place with wholesalers in different part of the country.

“During the pandemic places like Wayfair and Amazon blew up. People are comfortable buying furniture online,” said Solmundson. “We want to be able to provide appropriate service that a niche market product like this deserves. We want to have the connection with the consumer that’s not separated by a retailer in between us.”

They plan to do some online marketing and they will travel to trade shows — starting with a sustainability show in Kenora this weekend — but the Embed will be sold exclusively from its website.

Along with the launch of the Embed, the company also has side cabinets and other space-saving cabinetry solutions, and they are just doing the final pricing on some other space-saving items that go with the bed, like adjoining desks, nightstands, shelving units and chairs.

martin.cash@freepress.mb.ca