Shaw Kicks Off First Aligned-Dealer Meeting in Four Years

Orlando, FL, January 16, 2023-Forty-six hundred people (including 1,200 children) from 970 member accounts in Shaw’s Flooring Network are meeting in Orlando, Florida for the first “customer hugging” event for Shaw since 2019.

The theme of the meeting is "Independent and United," spotlighting the concept that each of these businesses is family owned and independent, yet stronger when they work together.

In addition to the normal trade show and education sessions, the event features fun and games for the dealers' families, including a trip to Universal’s Islands of Adventure and a keynote from Deion Sanders, coach of Colorado University and former NFL star.

In CEO Tim Baucom’s opening remarks, he stated that "the next five years will be one of the strongest opportunities to renovate homes than ever before.” He encouraged his customer partners to be curious and stay bold as the entrepreneurs they are.

The massive showroom at this event, which runs January 15 to 18, is set up as a small village. A central park covered with synthetic turf is surrounded by separate themed buildings for each of the topic areas: Coretec--which is celebrating ten years since its launch; a hardware store for Totalworx accessories and floor prep; a tech store for digital collaboration with Velocity (Mobile Marketing), Roomvo, RFMS, Promobox and QFloors; a boutique store for customer merchandising ideas; a "mainstreet school" for Philadelphia Commercial-branded products; a Wells Fargo Bank; a "pet store" focused on Pet Perfect and Pet Perfect+ products; and a take on an upper-end fashion store featuring Anderson Tuftex products.

In Sanders' opening remarks Sunday, he paid tribute to the mothers in the audience and stressed the importance of participating in team sports and having faith in God.

Shaw started having these “family oriented” aligned-dealer meetings in 1998 and held them every other year until 2019. Now, many of the children who attended those early meetings are working in or running their parents’ businesses.

The National Floorcovering Alliance (NFA) had 35 member companies in attendance this year. To be a Shaw-aligned dealer, Shaw asks that each account make Shaw their primary supplier.

Shaw Industries is the largest supplier of flooring products in the U.S. with an estimated sales volume of $6.2 billion. This Berkshire Hathaway company serves the residential flooring market with four core flooring brands: Shaw Floors, Philadelphia Commercial, Coretec and Anderson Tuftex.

Print the Article