What Hickory Springs manufactures

Hickory Springs is the wire and bedding division of HSM, a privately held North Carolina manufacturer that started in 1944 as a supplier of coiled seating springs to the furniture and bedding trade. Eight decades later the operation spans five material families: drawn steel wire, coil and micro-coil springs, polyurethane and bio-based foam, stamped and tube-formed metal, and nonwoven converting. The company draws its own high-carbon and low-carbon steel wire in-house, using an induction-tempering process it describes as an improvement over conventional oil tempering, and validates it in an on-site metallurgical lab with tensile, torsion, and micro-hardness testing.

The spring and wire lines feed furniture, bedding, and industrial markets: furniture springs, sinuous wire, spring clips, traditional innersprings, individually wrapped pocketed coils, and the HS2 micro-coil system built through a partnership with Harrison Spinks. On the wire side, HSM lists automotive border wire and seating, mechanical and suspension springs, overhead-door springs, agricultural springs, and appliance wire among its markets. The metal operation adds forming, bending, stamping, and tube work for frames and motion mechanisms, including incliner, recliner, rocker, and swivel-base assemblies, alongside foam pouring and fabrication that runs from simple straight cuts to CNC die-cut shapes.

For a buyer, the useful frame is vertical integration: Hickory Springs makes the wire, forms the springs, pours and fabricates the foam, and assembles the mechanisms, which is why it competes on component consolidation rather than any single part. That integration is why the company appears in the supplier tier structure of several markets at once.

Transportation and OE seating

The clearest automotive and OEM footprint sits in HSM Transportation, the group's seating unit. HSM is the exclusive manufacturer of C.E. White School Bus Seats, acquired in 2012, and describes itself as the leading supplier of interior seating components and rebound foam in the school bus industry. In February 2025 it introduced VICTA, a seating platform for commercial buses and vans, and it supplies FMVSS-222 and FMVSS-302 compliant seating and molded rebond foam to school bus, commercial transit, RV, and golf-cart manufacturers. Earlier acquisitions built the same base: Triad-Fabco (molded rebond foam for school bus and golf cart, 2007) and JSI Corporation (OEM and aftermarket RV products, 2008).

This is the part of the business that qualifies Hickory Springs as a transportation supplier rather than only a furniture and bedding one. The seating systems are engineered assemblies with regulatory content, and the aftermarket is served through the OneBus parts channel. A buyer weighing seating or cushioning content for commercial vehicles is looking at documented OEM-program capability, not a catalog claim.

Ownership and history

Parks Underdown founded Hickory Springs in the Brookford community of Hickory, North Carolina in 1944. The company added sinuous wire and foam in the late 1950s, began pouring polyurethane foam in 1960, moved into metal tubing and stamping in 1974 with convertible sleep mechanisms, and started wire drawing in 1978, deepening its vertical integration each decade. It bought Spiller Spring in 1982 and Holland Wire in 1988, and in 2005 introduced Preserve, which it describes as the world's first bio-based foam using soybean-oil-derived content.

In 2013 the company rebranded from Hickory Springs Manufacturing to HSM, a change it made to grow its Transportation Solutions and Diversified Solutions units beyond the original furniture and bedding base. Today HSM is a privately held, family-owned holding company that reports roughly 1,500 associates across 22 manufacturing plants in 10 states, with headquarters still in Hickory. Hickory Springs remains the group's wire and bedding division. Leadership per the company's own materials: Mark S. Jones, President and CEO since 2016; Jeff Gilliam, CFO and CAO; Tim Becker, President of MetalWorks; and Mike Heyn, SVP of Manufacturing and Engineering.

Certifications and quality

HSM Transportation publishes an ISO 9001:2015 quality policy, and a Hickory Springs facility in China achieved ISO/TS 16949, the automotive quality standard that preceded IATF 16949, in 2012. The wire operation runs its own metallurgical laboratory with a degreed metallurgist, comprehensive barcode tracking through production and shipping, and in-house drawing dies to control quality and cost. These are reported as company claims and cover specific units rather than every plant; a buyer running a formal PPAP or supplier audit should confirm the certificate scope for the exact facility and part.

Known customers

Most of Hickory Springs' customer relationships are unnamed, which is normal for a component and OEM-program supplier serving furniture, bedding, and transportation buyers.

Beyond these captive and partnership relationships, HSM serves school bus, commercial transit, RV, furniture, and bedding OEMs without publicly naming the individual buyers. The customs record below shows the material inputs behind that work rather than the customer list.

Sourcing evidence

Hickory Springs' US import record reads like a domestic manufacturer's input stream, not a reseller's. Across 1,335 sea shipments recorded since January 2015, the mix is dominated by nonwoven polypropylene fabric, foam and wadding materials, seat parts, and integrated childseat modules, which are the raw and semi-finished inputs a foam, converting, and seating maker consumes to build finished product in North Carolina. The most recent shipment on record landed in September 2026, and container activity is stable to slightly up, with 103 shipments in the trailing 12 months against 95 the prior year. Bills of lading name a broad supplier base; the most active:

Five shown of a broad recorded base. By origin, China leads at 879 shipments, followed by Vietnam at 162 and India at 31, with the balance routed through intermediary lanes. The leading HS categories are nonwoven PP fabric (chapter 5603), seat parts and childseat modules (9401.90), and cellular-foam and latex mattress cores (9404.21), which line up with the foam, converting, and seating businesses. Customs-derived estimates put ocean shipping spend near $644,000 with roughly 20 percent cost coverage, an order-of-magnitude figure rather than an audited one. This import profile is a useful signal for buyers weighing nearshoring or tariff exposure, since the fabric and foam inputs are import-sourced while the finished springs, seating, and mechanisms are US-built.

Coverage caveats: these are US ocean-freight records only. Air, truck, and rail movements do not appear, some records name freight intermediaries rather than manufacturers, a few origin labels such as Saint Helena and Grenada are almost certainly transshipment or manifest noise rather than real production points, and product categories come from declared manifest codes, which are noisy. Absence of a record is not evidence of absence.

Frequently asked questions

What does Hickory Springs Manufacturing make?

Hickory Springs makes drawn steel wire, coil and micro-coil springs, mattress innersprings and pocketed coils, polyurethane and bio-based foam, stamped and tube-formed metal components, sleeper and recliner mechanisms, and nonwoven converted products. Through its HSM Transportation unit it also builds school bus and commercial-vehicle seating systems. It supplies furniture, bedding, transportation, packaging, and healthcare markets.

Who owns Hickory Springs Manufacturing?

Hickory Springs is a privately held, family-owned division of HSM, the holding company it grew into. The business was founded by Parks Underdown in 1944 and rebranded from Hickory Springs Manufacturing to HSM in 2013. NorthStar Capital is recorded as an investor. HSM reports roughly 1,500 associates across 22 plants in 10 states.

Where is Hickory Springs Manufacturing located?

Hickory Springs and its parent HSM are headquartered in Hickory, North Carolina, at 235 2nd Ave NW. The Hickory Springs division lists 13 locations concentrated in North Carolina plus plants in Sheboygan, Wisconsin; Verona, Mississippi; Phoenix, Arizona; Monticello, Iowa; and New Castle, Indiana. The wider HSM group operates 22 plants across 10 states.

Does Hickory Springs supply the automotive and transportation industry?

Yes. Its HSM Transportation unit is the exclusive manufacturer of C.E. White School Bus Seats and produces the VICTA commercial bus and van seating platform, supplying FMVSS-222 and FMVSS-302 compliant seating and rebound foam to school bus, transit, RV, and golf-cart makers. Its wire division also supplies automotive border wire, seating wire, and suspension springs.

What certifications does Hickory Springs hold?

HSM Transportation publishes an ISO 9001:2015 quality policy, and a Hickory Springs facility in China achieved ISO/TS 16949 automotive certification in 2012. The wire operation runs an on-site metallurgical lab with a degreed metallurgist. Certificate scope covers specific units, so buyers should confirm the exact facility and part in a formal supplier audit.

How large is Hickory Springs Manufacturing?

The HSM group reports approximately 1,500 associates across 22 manufacturing plants in 10 states, with a data-broker revenue estimate near $600 million for the group. No audited revenue figure is published because the company is private. Hickory Springs is the group's wire and bedding division.

Last verified September 27, 2026. Is this your company? Request a correction.