Coordinating rugs, broadloom: That's innovation
Lissa Wyman, Rug Editor -- Furniture Today, January 29, 2006
Rugs increasingly are being sold in mass-market stores, with prices being pushed down to laughably cheap levels. This may be good news for consumers, but it means trouble for vendors and traditional channels such as furniture, department and specialty stores.
A few years ago, the rug category offered one of the best profit opportunities in home furnishings. Today, you have to move tons of merchandise to turn a decent buck. The outlook seems fairly bleak for making a fair and honest dollar.
Still, things are happening that give me new hope:
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Two giant rug vendors, Nourison and Couristan, have created divisions to produce, market and merchandise coordinated lines of high-end broadloom carpeting, rugs and runners.
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Karastan, long a source of rugs and carpeting under one brand name, now is rolling out a new program that coordinates the two categories' color and design. Karastan is part of Mohawk Inds, the mega floor covering company.
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Stanton Carpet, which produces patterned broadloom, is introducing a rug venture at this week's Surfaces show in Las Vegas.
Four major companies, all popping up with the same idea at the same time — that's the definition of zeitgeist.
These guys aren't making commodity items aimed at low-ball price points. The carpeting resembles the high-fashion, elegantly patterned products that have captured the imagination of the design community in recent years. Instead of selling for $100 a square yard or more, the new items will sell for about $45 to $50. Not cheap, but definitely within the realm of reason at quality stores.
The synergies between broadloom and rugs are so obvious, I'm surprised no one has thought of this before. The two products don't compete with each other; they are complementary. Broadloom is being made on high-speed face-to-face Wilton machinery, the same equipment that makes most of today's power-loomed rugs. So coordinating design and color, and using the same yarn systems and color palettes, is a relative snap.
For independent specialists competing with Home Depot and others of that ilk, this can mean a new and profitable way to woo fashion-conscious consumers with proprietary products. For furniture stores with design departments, it's a natural fit and an obvious way to get whole-house commitments. For furniture stores that currently don't carry rugs or carpet, these programs present new profit opportunities. For designer showrooms, they provide entry-level product. For rug specialists, it's a way to dabble in broadloom without getting into the carpet rat-race.
I don't think good companies have to cave in to the low-price pressures of today's market. I look forward to seeing even more innovative marketing solutions.
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Rugs regain momentum
Jan 9, 2005 -
Rug vendors work to maintain momentum
Apr 24, 2005 -
Rugs moving beyond traditional channels
Apr 18, 2004 -
Big boxes pull rug from under tradition
Jan 8, 2006
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