About Us

Meridian Mattress was started by Josiah Crudup in 1892 across from our us on Rubush Ave, in what is now our parking lot. The original building was taken down in 2004.

Josiah died in 1924 and left the business to his three boys, the oldest, Lawrence, being 20 years old. The family incorporated the business in 1928. The business grew a lot during the 1940’s. We began servicing furniture stores and sold very little to the public.

BEMCO Founders

In 1954, while at a bedding convention, Everett Crudup and several other small bedding manufacturers met together and formed Bemco. In the beginning Bemco was primarily a buying group. Soon they started buying advertising stuff together. (The Bemco pajama man was created by the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania advertising firm at about the same time they created Ronald McDonald.)

Everett Crudup, the last of his siblings, died in 1971. Gerald Crudup, his youngest son, and Everett Crudup Jr. ran the business. During the 1980’s Meridian Mattress grew to where we servicing the whole state of Mississippi and Louisiana, and the western half of Alabama. We also serviced Blake Furniture, a chain of stores, in east Texas. In the 1990’s we were averaging over $500,000 per month in sales.

Everett Crudup

Gerald Crudup past away in 2004. In 2005, Jackie, his widow, bought the other side of the family out. It was at this time that cheap imports and big stores like Sam’s, Big Lots, Ashley’s, began taking a toll on our dealership structure. The orders became smaller and more spread out.

By 2009, we found ourselves struggling to get enough bedding on our delivery trucks to run profitably. As it turns out, many small bedding manufacturers in our market region were struggling with closing their doors as well. The decision was made to sell the company but when no buyers came forward, the only alternative was to close the business.

But it turned out to only be a temporary closure, because while we were closed people continued to contact us at Meridian Mattress Factor asking us to make them a mattress. And, they wouldn’t take no for an answer. All they cared about was purchasing a high quality mattress from a company they could trust.

A Truck Load of BEMCO Mattresses!

One mattress at a time, we found our way back into full operation. In late 2010, Jackie Crudup deeded the Company to her two sons Thomas and Bill. With a small business loan, we purchased some inventory and began retailing direct to the public. At the same time, we reconnected with some of our wholesale and contract business customers and Meridian Mattress’s factory floor was noisy once again.

Meridian Mattress Factory is growing again and we have to thank our loyal customers for continuing to support our efforts to create and manufacture the best hand-crafted, high quality mattresses at affordable prices. In 2016 and 2017, we won back to back Meridian Star’s Reader’s Choice Awards for Best Mattresses.

So Meridian Mattress Factory has come full circle.

We have returned to what we were in the beginning: a family owned business listening to our customers and manufacturing hand-crafted bedding. That’s our secret family recipe to create the quality and durability you get with every Meridian Mattress Factory product.