Letters to the editor
By Furniture Today Staff -- Furniture Today, August 19, 2007
Consider more than 'Made in China' mentality when buying fabric
Please permit me the opportunity to piggyback on the comments made by my friendly competitor, Roger Berkeley of Weave Corp. (Letters to the Editor, Furniture/Today, July 30, page 116).
The demise of Joan and Quaker is, indeed, unfortunate for the thousands of employees that were thrown out of work. When American manufacturing companies try to compete with third-world companies merely on price, everyone loses. In this country, the good old US of A, there are still manufacturing entities in every industry, including textiles, that are not only surviving, but thriving, because they offer their discerning customers a lot more than just price.
The eight upholstery manufacturers that comprise the National Textile Assn. Upholstery Fabrics Committee are all committed to protecting the intellectual property of the designs they work so hard to create on a collaborative basis with their clients. This, combined with maniacal attention to detail in design, color consistency from delivery to delivery, quality assurance, on-time delivery, the ability to be flexible and accommodate customers changing delivery requirements, and last but certainly not least, an environmentally friendly perspective, makes us, the members of the Upholstery Committee, a value by any sense of the word.
With the design studios each of us maintains, we can assure all our customers individual design distinction. This is not achievable in a mass-market "Made in China" mentality.
We encourage all American furniture manufacturers to look first in their own backyard before raising their horizons over the seas. Not just selling on price will add to their bottom line!
Irwin Gasner, Wearbest Sil-Tex Mills
U.S. fabrics not hard to find
This letter is in response to your story, "U.S. fabrics hard to find," on page 36 of Furniture/Today's Aug. 6 issue.
On behalf of the eight upholstery fabric manufacturers that comprise the National Textile Assn. Upholstery Fabrics Committee, I wish to assure furniture makers that U.S. fabrics are NOT hard to find.
Yes, the loss of Joan and Quaker has reduced the fabric resources in this country, but a wide selection of upholstery fabrics at varied price points are made by those who still operate successfully in the United States. Not only do U.S. mills offer more style and better delivery, as one of your interviewees noted, but we are more flexible and our quality is consistently higher than those mills in China and elsewhere, who are offering very generic-looking product.
Those furniture makers who want their products to look different from the company down the hall would do well to eschew the me-too product from China and turn to the infinitely creative mills of the United States.
Just to make it easier to find us, the following U.S. fabric makers are ready and willing to fill customers' needs: American Silk Mills, Craftex, Microfibres, Milliken & Co., Sunbury Textile Mills, Valdese Weavers, Wearbest and my own company, Weave Corp. We are all listed on the Web site www.nationaltextile.org. Just click on the "Our Members and Their Products" link on the home page.
Roger Berkley, chairman, NTA Upholstery Fabrics Committee, president, Weave Corp.
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