Couristan opens its new High Point Market showroom featuring a comprehensive selection of new high-end handmade area rugs.
HIGH POINT, N.C. -- Couristan simultaneously unveiled its new High Point showroom and a new strategy for the company’s area rug business with a comprehensive launch of high-end hand-knotted, hand-loomed and hand-tufted area rugs at the IHFC Design wing, space D335.
At the new 2,659 square foot showroom, RugNews.com editors spoke with Couristan president, Len Andolino, who said the new strategy had been in the works for over a year, but the High Point Market launch represents the company’s largest-ever presentation of handmade rugs.
Len Andolino, Couristan president
“At High Point Market, the big excitement came from our new strategy of going more upscale with hand-knotted and loom-knotted rugs, and higher-end hand-tufted rugs. We’re very excited about the response and based on the reaction of customers and our sales force, we know we are on the right path.
“We’re looking to expand our footprint with flooring stores, furniture stores, trade showrooms, design studios. Anyone who sells better merchandise and is committed to quality products is our target customer," Andolino explained.
That path involves a strategic decision to upscale and revitalize the company’s area rug business. “We are in the midst of reinventing a 98-year-old company when it comes to the rug part of our business. The focus is on handmade product, and that’s why Marlys Giordano, our vice president of product development on the rug side, has spent the last 16 months developing this vision and creating these rugs.”
Georgia Couri cuts the ribbon on Couristan's new IHFC Hamilton Wing showroom alongside Marlys Giordano, Bob Tucci,
Steve Couri, Len Andolino and Charles Romano.
BROADLOOM INFORMS UPSCALE RUG STRATEGY
Couristan has three segments to its business, a hospitality division, a residential broadloom business and a residential rug business. “We’ve always had an assortment of handmade products, but we took a step back and looked at where our company was overall,” Andolino explains.
“Our broadloom division is high-end to luxury, and we manufacture with all sorts of yarns and constructions. A lot of our broadloom gets turned into custom, made to order rugs, which is a significant for us, and a growing business industry wide.
“Our sales force is calling on very high-end, sophisticated dealers with our broadloom. A lot of those dealers sell a lot of specialty rugs that are more expensive, higher-quality hand-knotted. We felt we needed to create a rug line that was going to align ourselves better with them because their account base demands that.
“For a while we were hoping that our dealer base would also sell our indoor-outdoor rugs and some of our lower-priced products. In reality, these dealers want to sell better goods. This new direction shows that we’re listening to them.”
Couristan's new focus on handmade products takes center stage in its High Point Market showroom.
PROTECTING BRICK & MORTAR CUSTOMERS
In upscaling the rug division, the company has a mandate to safeguard its customers. “We’re doing this by protecting them with higher-end hand-knotted products that are being created for the brick-and-mortar dealer base only.
“Our handmade rugs will not be in big boxes; they will not be online on e-commerce sites, so we are protecting the dealers with this better merchandise and we’re stocking sizes which also resonate with what they’re selling. We’re stocking 6x9, 8x10, 9x12 and 10x14. And the beauty of the handmade business is we also can make custom sizes. If a customer loves our patterns and our colors but wants a custom size (let’s say they want an 11x18), we can make that as a one-off specialty rug.”
The Desi collection hand-knotted of wool, was Couristan’s High Point Market top seller, favored for its colorful, updated
Ikat and Heriz motifs.
HIGH-END HIGH POINT INTROS
At High Point Market, Couristan’s top sellers, all handmade collections, were the new Desi lineup, line extensions to the Elysian range, and the debuting Hamadan collection. Desi is hand-knotted of 100 percent wool, taking beautiful Ikat, Heriz and other traditional motifs and infusing them with rich on-trend color stories. The Elysian collection, which debuted in April to rave reviews, is hand-knotted of wool offering a fresh approach to traditional motifs in a high-low Oushak weave. Hamadan is a rich collection of hand-knotted 100 percent wool Kazak designs given a modern update with elements of gray, blue and earth hues.
“We had a strong launch at High Point. We’ve certainly been introducing more handmade high-end rugs over the last year, but with this new High Point showroom, we took the opportunity to simultaneously launch the showroom and prominently showcase these better-end goods,” Andolino said.
Couristan introduces the hand-knotted Hamadan collection, which updates classic Kazak designs in fresh colorations.
OUTDOOR & MACHINE-MADE HOLD STRONG
Known as a leader in indoor-outdoor rugs, Couristan will continue to be a force in the category, Andolino says. “We will never abandon the indoor-outdoor rug business: it has been paramount to our company for many years, decades. We’ve been the pioneer in that category, and that is going to continue. The same is true for our machine-made million-point polypropylene and polyester rugs,” he explains.
Indeed, industry experts concur that the late Ron Couri was instrumental in bringing indoor-outdoor rugs into the marketplace over 20 years ago. Couristan also led the industry with in-out broadloom. “We’ll continue to embrace and be a force in the indoor-outdoor category. What I’m speaking of is the strategic addition of handmade rugs to our machine-made and performance collections.”
LOOKING FORWARD TO 100TH ANNIVERSARY
Featured in the new showroom, this detail of the Couristan history wall, represents a work in progress with photos and
magazine articles tracking major company milestones.
Plans are already underway for a yearlong celebration of Couristan’s 100th anniversary in 2026. At High Point Market, the beginnings of a company history wall were prominently displayed with photos and magazine articles showcasing the company’s deep roots and honoring the pioneers of the company and its past offerings.
“The next year and three months we’ll be working toward our celebration year in 2026. Quite frankly we’re not sure where we are going to land, or what the celebration is going to be. There are not many companies that make it to their 100th anniversary --or that have been continually run by the same family they were founded by. That is the case with the Couri family which is still at the helm of this Couristan. And we are very proud of that fact,” Andolino concludes.