Eight fabric mills consider coalition
By Carole Sloan -- Furniture Today, January 18, 2004
HIGH POINT — Top executives of eight decorative fabric mills met here during Showtime to discuss a possible new coalition to address issues such as flammability and other regulatory matters, and protection of intellectual property rights.
"It was a very preliminary meeting, but we felt there was a need to bring key members of the decorative fabrics industry to discuss the significant issues facing the business," said Larry Liebenow, president and chief executive officer of Quaker Fabric. "How it evolves and in what form will be determined."
Liebenow and Hank Truslow III, chairman and CEO of Sunbury, will report back to the original group in a few weeks with suggestions about the next steps.
Other companies represented at the meeting were Craftex, Culp, Tietex, Valdese, Wearbest Sil-Tex and Weave.
"There is a very real need to get together on these issues," said Truslow. "What the ATMI once (did) has changed because of reduced budgets and a major change in direction."
Many ATMI members are in the apparel business, and in recent years the group has been dealing with that industry's migration to offshore producers. The American plants' troubles have led to budget cuts at ATMI.
Truslow noted that Hardy Poole, a key longtime ATMI executive involved in decorative fabrics issues, now has joined the Boston-based National Textile Assn. to assist in these matters. The NTA was created in late 2002 by a merger of the Northern Textile Assn. and the Knitted Textile Assn.
Among the possibilities to be considered by the companies meeting at Showtime are joining together under the NTA or forming their own coalition. Truslow said he is enthusiastic about bringing in decorative fabric converters and finishers together with the mills to form a decorative fabrics council.
"There are many areas where all of the decorative fabrics segments can agree," he said. "We are excited that we will end up with a forum in some format. We all agreed that some action is needed, and we will come back and see what can be put together."
Liebenow said the industry is "together in terms of the flammability issue." Quaker has been providing technical support to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission to help the CPSC develop an effective, affordable approach to flammability regulation.
But Liebenow said the industry also must work for "true" free trade agreements as well as global protection of intellectual property rights and other issues.
"We have a lot of pressing issues that are facing all of us," said Mike Shelton, president of Valdese. "We need to identify the specific issues and make the points be known in the appropriate places. We still need to determine what voice we should have to give maximum credibility. We have to have a consensus in matters like trade issues and flammability."
"From our point of view, we will do anything we can to help the industry," said Rob Culp, chairman and CEO of Culp. "When it comes to regulatory issues we all are in the same boat. We have to figure how to ensure a level playing field."
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