Fluffo Puts Business to Bed

Fat Bottom Brewery took over the old Fluffo facility on Main St. The Capitol City Matress Company has a newer site on Woodland St. Photo courtesy Fat Bottom Brewery

An East Nashville mattress manufacturer – dating back to The Depression – is saying so long. The Capitol City Mattress Company, better known as the folks who make Fluffo, is coming to an end.

The company started in 1930 as a refurbisher of mattresses, eventually evolving into a manufacturer on Main Street. Owner Horace Bass bought the business from a widow in 1985, primarily so his daughter – who is deaf – would have somewhere to work.

“I have a lot of sentimental feelings about closing down. Sometimes I just want to sit down and cry. But I’m not sorry, because I’m 83 years old.”

Bass says he couldn’t find a suitable buyer. He insists the company isn’t going under, though production is way down from decades ago when the facility would crank out 200 mattresses a day. Now, it’s more like 25 or 30.

The company has already sold the property to the same developer that owns the Fat Bottom Brewery next door. Bass says he expects his mattress factory will become some kind of retail center or perhaps another brewery.

Fluffo is laying off nine employees. The company has scheduled a liquidating auction for December 11th.