This year’s Atlanta International
Area Rug Market is set to be the largest yet. Literally. AmericasMart Atlanta
is expanding to include a cavernous 250,000 sq. ft. for furniture, home
furnishings and area rugs. With the extra room, five rug makers say they plan
on exhibiting at the market for the first time. Additionally, seven exhibitors
say they are expanding and renovating their showrooms.
National Floor
Trends asked a panel of top executives to answer several questions
about business conditions in the floor covering industry for the coming year:
BUSINESS CLIMATE:
What is your forecast for 2008? What initiatives are you taking to help business rebound?
GREEN: Sustainability and environmental responsibility
have never been more prominent
issues in flooring. What are
you doing to distinguish your operation in these areas?
TRAINING: How does your company approach training and
installation? What are you doing to address this area?
Our exclusive survey finds: Solid majority say
they actively pitch the category; market evenly split between foreign and
domestic; residential sales still dominate; 40% of sales for non-floor areas.
Brintons, widely recognized for its range of Axminster
carpets, recently participated in a $20 million restoration of the historic
Leland Stanford Mansion in San Francisco. Built in 1856, the 19,000 sq. ft.
Victorian mansion originally served as the office of three governors and is
today used for the state’s diplomatic and business receptions. Brintons, which was founded in 1783, provided
carpet patterns designed to match the original flooring from photographs taken
during the 1870s.
AmericasMart
Atlanta is set to add an additional 250,000 sq. ft. of space for furniture,
home furnishings and area rugs in time for the January ’08 Atlanta Rug Market.
The expansion in Bldg. 1 follows a planned 1.5 million sq. ft. addition to
Bldg. 2 slated to open in 2009. When completed, the new wing in Bldg. 2 will
create one of the largest assortments of high design, garden and gourmet
products in the U.S., according to the company.
Online training group
Trainingspace now offers a course on window coverings. Topics include selling
window coverings, window coverings types, and measuring, installing and
maintaining the product. The window coverings class marks the first course from
Trainingspace that moves beyond the traditional areas of flooring and
countertops.
A visitor to Cape Cod shouldn’t have too much
trouble spotting Steve Luciani, a local flooring retailer who is also a big fan
of laminate flooring. They can see him tooling around town in a canary yellow
1934 Ford pickup with gold trim. Luciani, the owner of Coachlight Carpets in
Centerville, Mass., says he has driven the vintage truck to jobsites for 32
years. It’s good advertising, he says.
As part of our ongoing effort to identify the
trends shaping the floor covering industry, National Floor Trends
asked a panel of experts to weigh in on a few areas of interest. The
individuals we invited to participate are seasoned executives who are leading
prominent companies within our industry. The general consensus is that the
flooring business has been beset by a number of significant challenges in
recent years. Still, the clear consensus is that the industry’s continued
growth will be fueled by product innovation, customer service and commitment to
environmental responsibility. One nagging trouble spot, however, is the
scarcity of qualified installers.
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