System sleeping
A company with a new product soon to be appearing on the trade show floor is VSS Sleep Systems. The innovator of a new type of mattress and bed frame has recently relocated its corporate headquarters and marketing office from Calgary, Alta., Canada, to a 2,600-square-foot office in Spring Hill.

"This is a great place to position our company," says Walter Viveiros, the firm's president. "I fly to Canada at least once a month. The Suncoast Parkway has been incredible. I can be at the airport in 45 minutes. The drive used to be an hour and a half. It's serene here and a great place for a family."

The Suncoast Parkway¹s ribbon of concrete and asphalt running through Hernando, Pasco and Hillsborough counties is quickly turning into an engine of growth for Hernando.

Viveiros and his staff have been developing "a unique sleep system," he says. "Our product is designed based on what the human body needs to rest properly. Our technology includes the top of the bed that is 100-percent virgin wool, a mattress that automatically adjusts to the weight of people on the bed and a slatted suspension system that the mattresses rest on. It articulates up and down. It's a bed built for the healthy but it's also very good for people with health challenges."

Research and development on this new system has been under way since 1993. "We're in the process of rolling it out," says Viveiros. "We're working with the world's largest hospitality company to beta test. We're getting preliminary results back and are scoring very high in customer satisfaction."

In addition to marketing the bed system to hotel chains, Viveiros also plans to sell the product via the Internet. "We're setting up a call center at our main office [in Spring Hill]," he says.

When considering where to relocate the company headquarters, "we could have chosen anywhere we wanted," says Viveiros. "As a Canadian company, we knew 90 percent of our business would be in the U.S. We chose Florida as one of the better states. Hernando is well positioned, close to Tampa, and the Suncoast Parkway provides easy access to Tampa International Airport. Taxes are lower, which means we can give a better return to our shareholders. Overall it has been a great move."

Another company on the move is Sun Fiberglass Products, which manufactures one-piece fiberglass swimming pools. The 38-employee company has bought a 40,000-square-foot building in Brooksville and is relocating from Homosassa.

"Our company started in 1994 in Hudson [Pasco County] and we relocated to Homosassa a couple years ago," says Curt Prystupa, the firm's president. "We've outgrown our 9,500-square-foot facility. We've been doing quite a bit of our work outside, detailing our pools. In our new facility, we can produce the pool and get it ready for shipment inside. This takes the weather out of the equation."

The company ships its pools "east of the Mississippi River and throughout the Northeast," Prystupa says. "We're very heavy in the mid-Atlantic area. And we sell throughout the Caribbean Islands. The fiberglass pool industry is picking up momentum. Our pools hold up beautifully to colder weather."

Following a $250,000 renovation of the Brooksville building, "we'll probably add 10 to 15 positions when we make the move," says Prystupa. "Brooksville is very appealing. It's close to I-75, U.S. Highway 41 and State Road 50, so we have access to central Florida."

Proximity to I-75 and State Road 50 undoubtedly played a role in another pool company's relocating to Hernando. California-based Polaris Pools, a national supplier of pool accessories for private and public pools, is building a $1-million, 40,000-square-foot manufactur- ing and distribution facility that will bring 30 jobs to eastern Hernando.

"We're hoping Polaris will be here by the beginning of next year," says Coldwell Banker's Gary Schraut, who is also a partner in Hernando Investments Inc., which owns the land at that site.