Nobody, but nobody, anticipated that a new carpet mill would materialize in the midst of an elongated and hollow recovery, let alone watch it become the third largest carpet producer in the country. Certainly no one would have dreamed that the man behind this phenomenon was someone who had piloted the world’s largest carpet producer to capture that mantle serving as its CEO since 1957. No one in Dalton or in the United States could have possibly foreseen Bob Shaw stepping down as chairman and CEO of Shaw Industries in his 70s only to turn around and launch what is now a company with three very large and high tech facilities, one of which is said to be the largest single carpet manufacturing facility in the world. And all this, mind you, taking place nearly in the shadows of the world’s two largest players.
So how do you top a story like this one? What about adding a chapter that sees Engineered Floors merge with 59-year-old carpet producer, owned by another Dalton-based family very similar to the Shaw family? Well that’s exactly what has happened, and that transaction was closed just a few weeks ago. Bob Shaw has been building Engineered Floors when many in the industry were experiencing tough times and he did so by focusing on polyester and the multifamily sector and later by acquiring Dreamweaver and expanding into the single-family retail arena.