The bedding industry roared back from a weak August to record strong results in September, with units jumping 8.7% and dollars soaring 16.0%.

The September Bedding Barometer report, issued by the International Sleep Products Assn. here, revealed strong results for both the innerspring and specialty bedding segments, but showed that the month was especially strong for specialty bedding.

For the first nine months of the year, industry units were up 1.6% while the wholesale dollar value of bedding shipments was up 5.7%. The average unit price was up 4.0% through September, to $225.13.

The Bedding Barometer reports results for 14 U.S. bedding producers that account for a majority of bedding units and dollars, ISPA said.

ISPA provides quarterly breakdowns on the innerspring and specialty segments, and those breakdowns are included in the September report. It reveals that innerspring mattress units and dollars are outperforming specialty mattress units and dollars, but that the specialty segment did extremely well in September.

For the first nine months of the year, innerspring mattress units were up 2.1%, compared with an increase of just 0.2% for specialty mattresses. In that same time period, innerspring mattress dollars were up 7.3%, compared with an increase of 5.6% for specialty mattress dollars. The average unit price for innerspring mattresses was up 5.1%, to $278.29, in the first nine months of the year, compared with an increase of 5.3%, to $795.64, for specialty mattresses.

But specialty sleep was the winner in September, the ISPA report says.

Innerspring mattress units jumped 10.6% in September, but specialty mattress units were up even more, posting an 11.2% increase. Similarly, innerspring mattress dollars jumped 15.9% in September, but couldn’t keep pace with the 19.0% dollar increase recorded by specialty mattresses.

In September, the average unit price for innerspring mattresses was up 4.8%, to $298.93, while it was up 7.0%, to $866.96, for specialty mattresses.

For the third quarter, industry units were up 3.3% while the wholesale dollar value of bedding shipments was up 8.0%, ISPA said. Innerspring mattress units and dollars outperformed specialty mattress units and dollars in the third quarter.

The Bedding Barometer reports reflect the performance of bedding producers that last year accounted for about 70% of total units and about 78% of the wholesale revenue of the full market, ISPA said. But it cautions that the performance of those companies may not necessarily reflect the performance of the full mattress industry because of market share or distribution changes, among other factors.