‘Healthy bedding’ demand fuels growth of 127-year-old Frankenmuth Woolen Mill

John Hitsman, wool production, lifts wool out of an extractor that helps dry wool after it’s been washed. The wool is then air-dried for up to five additional days before heading to the wool carding machine.
(Photo by John Cook)

One of Frankenmuth’s most historic buildings is under new ownership for just the fourth time in 127 years — and largely as a result of increased demand for the “healthy bedding” made by Frankenmuth Woolen Mill.
Abby and Matt Curtis recently bought the building at 570 S. Main St., home to Frankenmuth Woolen Mill — a business they have owned and operated for the last decade.
The couple had been renting the building from McClellan Properties, the company that Abby’s parents (Carol McClellan and the late Gary McClellan) had when they bought the mill in 1977.
The $500,000 purchase of the building by Abby and Matt Curtis represents the culmination of five years of significant growth for the company that has found a niche in the “healthy bedding” market — and has no plans of slowing down.

“We saw an opportunity to make a mark in the healthy bedding segment of wool bedding and we ran with it,” Abby Curtis said. “We have increased our sales over 400 percent in the past five years and now make our signature bedding year-round in this historic mill.” (Read more)

(This story originally appeared in the March 11, 2017 print edition of The Tuscola County Advertiser and can be read online in its entirety here.)

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