Don Karlin of Nourison walks Chris Adams of Value Carpet One Floor & Home, Salisbury, Maryland, through the latest introductions,
including it’s
Rug Boutique, a compact display for 100 rug designs designs.
DENVER — Suppliers came out in force to Colorado for the CCA Global convention to showcase their latest offerings in broadloom and area rugs, a category that right now is surging on the residential side of the business. The mills met with several hundred retailers representing four groups, predominantly Carpet One Floor & Home and Flooring America, which have roughly 1,000 flooring stores in the U.S. combined.
RugNews.com tours the annual event and reports on what is trending with retailers at the convention and how manufacturers are adapting their offering to cater to changing needs.
For the first time in at least five years, Dalyn Rug Co. of Dalton, Georgia, returned to the CCA convention. Ashton Davis, the company’s regional vice president, said the rug mill went back to the drawing board to reconfigure its displays to meet the current needs of flooring retailers, many of whom have abandoned wing racks for space reasons. Dalyn offered three displays that take up only about 9 square feet. “We are excited to be back, we think the timing is right,” Davis said. “The reception has been phenomenal. The real draw for us is the number of SKUs you can merchandise, which in this case is over 1,000. Flooring retailers want displays that are efficient and cost effective. These displays pay for themselves with two rug sales.”
Davis added that rugs are the largest accessory category in home furnishings today. “Everyone is going to buy a rug.”
Dalyn Rugs’ Ashton Davis, regional vice president, showcases a reconfigure rug and carpet display designed for flooring retailers, who no longer employ wing racks.
Don Karlin, director of broadloom sales for Nourison, agreed that most consumers are in the market for a rug these days; it is just a question of where and how they are going to purchase them. Karlin has advice for the specialty flooring dealer. “I tell dealers all the time that if you don’t close the rug deal in your showroom you will lose the deal, and they will buy elsewhere. You have to close them while they are in your store.”
Nourison’s answer is its Rug Boutique, allows consumers to choose from 100 designs, styles, and colors ranging from traditional to contemporary. “For $500 you’re back in the rug business,” Karlin said. “The display takes up 6 feet in your showroom; for that, you are back in the rug business.”
Jeff Lerner, owner of Floorcraft Carpet One Floor & Home in San Francisco, was interested in rugs, either through a custom program or fabricated from broadloom. As he explained, “We do a lot of business in rugs, just not the old-fashioned way.” Like many, Lerner doesn’t have the space to merchandise thousands of rugs. Instead, he prefers sample programs or interactive kiosks that allow a customer to shop for rugs without having so much inventory.
Considering this trend, Karastan’s rug kiosk continues to be a big hit, with 175 retailers on board. “Every dealer should have one,” Sarah Higgins, owner of Higgins Carpet One Floor & Home, South Portland, Maine, said as she toured the Karastan booth.
Jimmy Gentry of Mohawk (left) meets with Dee Campbell and Sarah Higgins of Higgins Carpet One Floor & Home, South Portland, Maine.
With the interactive kiosk, which offers more than 30 collections, consumers can filter selection by collection, style, fiber, color and/or size and view multiple high-resolution photos of every product. The display also provides large samples of every rug, so that customers can get an up-close look and feel.
“For those who don’t have the room for area rugs the kiosk is the space saver,” said Jimmy Gentry, business manager for Mohawk, who met with retailers to explain the attributes of the Karartan kiosk. “However, you don’t have to buy the kiosk to be in the program.”
At CCA, Kaleen unveiled Hook & Beam, which company executives heralded for its high-quality machine-made constructions offering a faster production line. All the products can be made into rugs. “Hook & Beam has had a 100 percent close rate at this show — everyone who has seen it has purchased it,” said Blake Dennard, senior vice president.
Kaleen’s Blake Dennard (right) walks Tracy Herron of Dave Herron & Sons Carpet One Floor & Home, Durant, Oklahoma, through the new Hook&Beam program.
With Hook & Beam, Dennard said the company wanted to create something unique and new to the industry. Dennard singled out the Circular Knit machine, which he likened to a large sock or hosiery machine (“on steroids”) which is a first to be used to weave broadloom carpeting. “Hook & Beam is off to a great start. We are trying to come up with completely unique product assortments within our three divisions.”
Dennard noted that Kaleen has had success with its simple rug pricing: length x width x squar feet. “You don’t need a rug calculator for this,” he said.
The Dixie Group was yet another exhibitor at CCA that showed off various broadloom and wall to wall offerings that in many instances will become rugs. That’s according to former Couristan executive Len Andolino who joined Dixie earlier this year to become VP of the decorative division in charge of the Fabrica and Masland brands. “Our customers have reached out to us and want another resource for their needs,” Andolino said. “And ours is an in-stock program.”