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Cheat sheets?

In linens, there's no bigger marketing tool than thread count. A Tampa seller of bedsheets is at the center of an industry squabble about just how to measure it.

By SCOTT BARANCIK
Published January 15, 2007

ADVERTISEMENT [Times photo: Joseph Garnett Jr.] Lisa Street, vice president of merchandising for the Thompson Group, owner of LinenSource, explains how the high number of threadcount affects the quality of their products.

TAMPA

The path to buying bedsheets isn't lined with satin.

Cotton sheets are available in Egyptian or Supima, long-staple or short, combed or not. Weaves come in twill or percale, and finishes in sateen or plain. Unless you grew up with a loom, such jargon might put you to sleep.

One factor cuts through all that marketing noise, however: thread count. Broadly defined as the number of horizontal and vertical threads squeezed into a square inch of fabric, thread count has become an article of faith among today's consumers, who believe with their hearts and wallets that a 600 thread count sheet is invariably softer, warmer and longer-lasting than a 200. It's as vital a marketing tool for sheets as horsepower is for cars.

But some linen manufacturers say their peers are cheating. Among the accused is Linen Source Inc., a Tampa catalog company with annual sales of $80-million and a vexing lawsuit on its hands. A former customer says the company secretly inflates some of its thread counts by as much as 300 percent so that it can charge higher prices.

Linen Source vigorously denies the charge, and it suspects jealous competitors may be behind the suit. No matter who prevails, though, the verdict will cast doubt on a statistical yardstick trusted by millions of consumers.

Unraveling the mystery

August 2005 was a tough month for Linen Source, one of four catalog companies owned and run by Tampa's Franzblau family:

- On Aug. 2, the Federal Trade Commission issued a staff opinion on how to properly count threads. Without naming names, it concluded that a methodology identical to Linen Source's could mislead and deceive consumers.

- On Aug. 3, a 26-year-old Illinois schoolteacher shopping at linensource.com paid $300 for a set of white, queen-sized sheets and pillowcases with a 1,200 thread count. Months later, Michelle Lingle sued Linen Source for allegedly selling her a 400 thread count sheet at a 1,200 thread count price.

- In an August feature on bed linens, Consumer Reports gave a 300 thread count sheet from Target a higher rating than a 1,200 thread count sheet from Linen Source, even though the latter cost four times as much. A sidebar titled "Some Thread Counts are Bogus" cautioned readers that Linen Source's 1,200 thread count sheet actually had just 400 threads, according to an independent test.

What's irking Linen Source's critics? In a word, plies. Instead of using single-ply threads, the company's Chinese and Indian suppliers sometimes braid two, three or four cotton fibers or plies before weaving them. Linen Source counts each of these fibers as a separate thread. Its detractors, such as the National Textile Association, count each braid only once, regardless of the number of plies.

Lingle, the plaintiff, says tradition is on her side. She cites the work of ASTM International, an international standards-setting organization whose thread count test skips multi-plies, too.

Paul Bock, a Chicago attorney representing Lingle, said Linen Source should come up with a unique marketing plan for its multi-ply sheets rather than toy with thread counts. "Why not (call them) 'Magical Sheets from China?' " he scoffed.

In 1996, a company suffering similar criticism relented. It ceased telling consumers that its comforter had a 760 thread count, for example, and began saying the product was made from "380 2-ply fabric."

A strong defense

Linen Source isn't giving any ground.

Lisa Street, vice president of merchandising, said the company's thread counts are perfectly accurate. And, she added, "We're not out there on our own."

In an interview at Linen Source's Tampa headquarters, a few hallways down from an affiliate's massive cigar humidor, Street said the company is one of many that counts each individual ply, or fiber, as a thread. Some buy their sheets from the very same suppliers in China or India.

Charles Wachter, a Tampa lawyer representing Linen Source, attacked the plaintiff's evidence. He said the thread count test developed by the standard-setting group ASTM is outdated, a vestige of an era when most sheets were made with single cotton plies. He criticized the FTC for failing to invite outside views before drafting its staff opinion.

Wachter also accused U.S. textile manufacturers - whose trade group, the National Textile Association, had asked the FTC to weigh in on thread counts - of being sore losers. He said beleaguered domestic manufacturers are so challenged by bankruptcies and low-cost foreign competition that they can't afford to invest in new technologies, including the machines that produce multi-ply yarns.

What's so great about braiding, anyway? Street, the Linen Source merchandising chief, said braided yarns hold up better after multiple washings. They also can be squeezed together at unprecedented densities. One of the sheets sold at linensource.com boasts a thread count of 1,500, a figure she said today's single-ply manufacturers can't even dream of matching.

Rest assured, the company says in court papers, Michelle Lingle's $300 sheets were an "extremely good value."

Scott Barancik can be reached at barancik@sptimes.com or (727) 893-8751.

Linen Source Inc. sells luxury bedding products through Linensource, the most lucrative of four catalogs published by Tampa's Franzblau family.

Family patriarch Robert Franzblau got into the catalog business in the late 1950s when he bought Thompson Cigar, a mail-order company founded in Key West in 1915. Franzblau added two more titles in the late 1980s and placed his children at the helm: daughter Alix took over Casual Living, which features women's apparel and gifts, while son Carlo took charge of Colonial Made Curtains, later renamed Linensource. Robert Franzblau's year-old pet project, Cafe Belmondo, sells gourmet coffees and snacks.

Today, Linen Source alone generates annual revenues of about $80-million via its catalog, Web site and outlet store. The average customer spends roughly $150 for each set of sheets.

The Franzblau's holding company, Thompson Group, has a staff of about 500 in Tampa and annual revenues of roughly $200-million. Its three facilities are the corporate headquarters on Hangar Court, which includes a call center, retail cigar store and North America's largest humidor; its catalog outlet store and primary warehouse on W Knollwood Street; and a spillover warehouse on Harney Road.

In recent years, Carlo Franzblau has devoted much of his attention to a separate business venture. Electronic Learning Products Inc. produces software titles that help users improve their singing voice or their reading skills.

ABOUT THE CASE

THE LAWSUIT: An Illinois schoolteacher says Linen Source, a Tampa catalog company, charged her $300 for a "1200 thread count" bedsheet set whose true count was 400.

THE ISSUE: How to properly determine thread count, a yardstick used to measure the density and quality of linens.

WHERE THEY AGREE: Both parties determine thread count by tallying all the horizontal and vertical yarns within a square inch of fabric.

WHERE THEY CLASH: Linen Source says that each of its three-ply yarns should count as three threads; the plaintiff says it should count as one.

WHAT'S AT STAKE: The reliability of a statistic trusted by millions of consumers.

[Last modified January 15, 2007, 10:01:08]