New corporate HQ for MLily in V-Green shopping center
Cemone Paul, MLily marketing assistant, shows one of the company’s mattress product lines, Theater of Dreams, in MLily’s new flagship showroom, which opened Tuesday, April 16, in Village Green shopping center. The gel memory foam mattress was designed by Dr. Robin Thorpe for the famed Manchester United professional soccer team members.
The company combined its Oak Ridge location and its previous headquarters location in Knoxville to open a new headquarters and flagship store next to The Fresh Market, 11537 Kingston Pike, April 16.
MLily has planned its Farragut grand opening for June 24.
Starting with “our grand opening until July 31, anyone who comes into our showroom can take a picture on one of our mattresses, post it online and will be entered to win a trip to the U.K.,” said Ray Bishop, MLily graphic designer. “We’ll pay for them to fly there and stay there,” he said. “They will get to see Manchester United, the (famed professional) soccer team, play in their home stadium, a home game.”
Bishop said there was a mixed bag of reasons for moving corporate headquarters to Farragut.
“Our old corporate headquarters is the other side of Knoxville; we kind of have outgrown it; and we needed one showroom space,” he said. “This location in Village Green seemed perfect.
“It’s closer to our Loudon warehouse and easier for our trucks to get in and out.”
Bishop added there really was not a community in which to get involved at the former headquarters near Papermill Drive.
“Being here gives a little bit more access to engage with the public and build the brand in the U.S. a little bit more,” he said.
MLily, founded in 2003 in China, is a worldwide organization with factories in China, Thailand and Serbia, and is global partners with Manchester United.
Its U.S. branch was brought to the United States in 2011, and currently it is building a new factory in Winnsboro, South Carolina.
While MLily already has its mattresses in 400 to 500 retail spots nationwide, “This will be the only, say, MLily store,” Bishop said.
Cemone Paul, marketing assistant, said MLily’s mattresses include a gel memory foam the company produces. When it first started, she said the company only was producing memory foam.
“We do have some that are all memory foam, and then we have some that are memory foam and a hybrid series, so that mix of foam and pocket springs,” she said. “A lot of our mattresses include cooling fabric that adapts and regulates one’s body moisture and temperature.”
The store also will carry cooling mattress protectors, which not only protects the mattress, but also uses a layer of a phase-changing material that pulls heat away from the body.
The biggest difference between MLily’s mattresses and other similar memory-foam mattresses on the market is that MLily is manufacturer direct, Bishop said.
“We are the brand,” he added. “We’re not getting another manufacturer to build our product for us. We are directly involved with the factory.”
The Farragut store will have the entire line of its mattresses and all of its pillows in house, and will showcase MLily’s new prototype, The Ego — the first U.S.-built and produced mattress from the company, Bishop said.
The showroom is open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Tuesday through Saturday; from noon to 4 p.m., Sunday; and is closed Monday.
For more information, contact MLily at 877-475-7768, e-mail to info@milyusa.com or visit online at mlilyusa.com/Knoxville.
