Why Atlanta is the powerhouse rug market
Lissa Wyman, Rug Editor -- Furniture Today, January 15, 2006
This week's Atlanta International Rug Market is make-or-break time for the rug industry. When it's a success, the rest of the year usually follows suit. When things go bad, the whole year can be a downer.
Why does one market have so much power?
Obviously, the fact that Atlanta is the first introductory event of the year carries a lot of weight. But its importance goes beyond practical and into the realm of the metaphysical.
Atlanta holds an important position in the shared vision of the rug industry. In fact, the AMC helped create a modern rug industry that exists separate and distinct from other floor coverings, furniture and textiles.
Here is the amazing story of how it happened:
In the late 1970s and 1980s, the Atlanta Market Center emerged as the premiere market for floor covering. During those glory days, all the major manufacturers of carpeting, hard surface flooring, fiber, tools, machinery and accessories showed at Atlanta's January and July floor covering markets. Oh, almost forgot. A few rug companies were also part of the action.
Then, the unthinkable. In 1991, the first Surfaces Floor Covering Expo was held in Las Vegas. The big, brassy show of temporary exhibits quickly captured the imagination of the floor covering industry. In the next few years, many large vendors left their Atlanta spaces.
AMC executives quickly went into reinvention mode. They had begun to woo rug vendors as consumers began turning to hard-surface floors, a sign the rug business would boom. In addition to its small core group of rug exhibitors such as Couristan, Trans Ocean, Pande Cameron and Capel, AMC worked closely with importers and Oriental rug retailers to form the National Oriental Rug Show as a center for hand-knotted, one-of-a-kind rugs.
An industry was being born and Atlanta was its incubator.
By the mid to late '90s, AMC floors were filling with permanent rug showrooms representing hand-knotted rugs and those new-fangled, power-loomed Wilton rugs.
Today the Area Rug Center consists of four floors of permanent showrooms and a floor of temporary exhibitors. Total rug exhibit space is 500,000 square feet, including 130 permanent showrooms and 58 temporary exhibitors.
AmericasMart has developed several programs aiding the development of the rug industry's collective identity. In January, there is the hotly contested Magnificent Carpet Awards. In July, it's the Retailer of the Year Awards.
In recent years, rug vendors have opened showrooms in High Point and New York. Many show at Surfaces, and the new Vegas market is attracting many major rug companies.
Still, Atlanta is almost sure to retain its power in the foreseeable future. In every other market, rugs are mere accessories. In Atlanta, rugs are an industry.
-
How will 2011's top five stories play out this year?
Jan 18, 2012 -
A tale of two markets taking place in rugs
Jan 30, 2006 -
A tale of two markets taking place in rugs
Feb 12, 2006 -
Overlap with Surfaces show seen as a plus
Jan 27, 2008 -
IHFC sets open accents area
Oct 21, 2007
VIEW ALL GALLERIES
