Vanessa Contreras, former president of McRoskey San Francisco, has acquired the retail operation.
SAN FRANCISCO – For the first time in 123 years, McRoskey San Francisco, the upscale bedding retailer based here, is under the ownership of a non-family member.
Vanessa Contreras, the new owner and CEO of the retailer, acquired the company from the previous owner Robin Azevedo, a third-generation McRoskey family member who had been with the company since 1980. With the completion of the sale, Azevedo has retired.
Founded in 1899 by Edward L. McRoskey, Azevedo’s grandfather, and his brother Leonard, the retailer operated as a factory-direct operation until 2018 when Fresno, Calif.-based Pleasant Mattress acquired production, distribution and marketing rights to the brand.
Contreras joined the company in 2007 as the retailer’s human resources director. In 2019, she was named president and took over day-to-day operations of the organization and management of the team.
“On a personal level, the acquisition is more than just loving the product and carrying on the tradition of McRoskey,” Contreras said. “We’re in a very male-dominated industry, and I, by no means, took the easy route along the away. Being a female-owned business in the iconic city of San Francisco is amazing. Women can be successful. This is a legacy business that has changed hands from one woman to another.”
Now that she has taken the reins, Contreras has a several key moves ahead, including relocating the store from its longtime location on Market Street. She is currently in negotiations on a 12,000-square-foot space in a Union Square location that will make it easily accessible to luxury consumers.
After the flagship store is moved, she plans to open two additional locations in the next 18 months. The new stores will be in the Greater San Francisco Bay area in 7,000-to-10,000-square-foot spaces.
The store’s merchandise mix is changing, too, and ongoing project that the company embarked on a couple of years ago. Prior to 2019, the retailer sold only the McRoskey brand of mattresses along with pillows, high-end linens and blankets.
Today, Contreras said, to remain competitive, the company has diversified its merchandising mix and will bring in Shifman Mattresses, the upper end of the newly redesigned Chattam & Wells mattress line and the Harvest lineup of natural mattresses crafted from certified organic materials.
“For us to remain competitive, as the McRoskey Mattress brand moves across the country, we felt the need to expand our selection,” Contreras said. “Our mission is to provide life-changing sleep to our customers. We don’t push products on them; we educate customers. Bringing in other lines allows them to make choices and gives us the opportunity to be experts on products that we curate.”
See also: