Owners of Customatic Technologies
PHIL AND INGRID McCARTY
Strong Voices Against Pancreatic Cancer
Written By Tony Subia
November 2019
Phil Has Been In The Bedding Industry For Five Decades. How It Came To Be Is An Interesting Story
As a young man in the 1970s, Phil had an auspicious career beginning in the industry. In those early days, hitch-hiking was an acceptable and a relatively safe method of transportation. In a strange way, a hitch-hiking experience led to his industry career. “I got picked up hitchhiking to Boston one day by a waterbed delivery guy,” McCarty said. “The course of discussion led me to apply for a job with that same company. I got the job the next day. Became the guys boss within a week, and fired him two days later for stealing from the company. That was the beginning of my entrance into the bedding, mattress, and home furnishing industry.”
The Mattress and Bedding Industry is A Close Knit Family
Those who work in the mattress industry often know it’s not uncommon for them to maintain lifelong friendships with each other. In 1998, through his future business partner, Phil Sherman, Phil McCarty met Roger Magowitz, then president of Metropolitan Mattress in Phoenix, Arizona and Mattress Discounters, in Virginia Beach, Virginia. Magowitz and McCarty kept in touch, and after Roger established the Seena Magowitz Foundation in 2002 in memory of his mother who died from pancreatic cancer, McCarty became an early supporter. Today, the Seena Magowitz Foundation receives the bulk of the McCarty’s annual, donations helping to fight pancreatic cancer.
Success Begets Success
McCarty transitioned out of the waterbed sector and spent 30 years representing home furnishing and bedding manufacturers. In 2004, along with Phil Sherman, McCarty started designing and selling adjustable beds. In 2010, McCarty partnered with Sherman to establish Customatic Adjustable Bedz, based in Natick, Massachusetts. The company manufactures adjustable products that can be tailored specifically to meet customers’ individual market needs.
“I’m hoping to help Phil and Phil become number one in the adjustable furniture category,” Magowitz said. “They already make great products, with a lot of well-known retailers and manufactures carrying them. We just need to get in front of more people and build out our capacity.”
The new name “emphasizes our more extensive, technology-based product line,” said McCarty. Since the company’s founding, it has moved beyond adjustable bases and mattresses, introducing new smart products for other rooms in the home.
Supporting Seena Magowitz Foundation and Pancreatic Cancer Research
The company’s impressive growth and expansion is allowing“the Phils” to continue proactively supporting the Seena Magowitz Foundation. Neither McCarty nor Sherman has any personal family connection to pancreatic cancer, and yet, the Seena Magowitz Foundation is the focus of the majority of their philanthropic activities.
McCarty has always looked forward to attending Seena Magowitz Foundation fundraising events and doing whatever is asked of him to help a very worthy cause.
