July 12, 2019—Zack Zehner, President of Mannington Mill's Residential business, and Kemp Harr, discuss business and market trends within the residential flooring market in the first half of 2019. Listen to the interview to hear more about Mannington's strategy and focus as the residential business continues to shift more to hard surface.
July 10—Rick Church, Executive Director with the Ceramic Tile Distributors Association, and Kemp Harr discuss the status of the countervailing duties and anti-dumping cases that have been filed with the Federal Government against imported Chinese made ceramic tile. This is separate from the Section 301 tariffs that are currently at the 25% level. Listen to the interview to hear more details about who the players are and what impact this action could have on Chinese produced tile.
July 10, 2019—Carrie Edwards Issac and Herb Upton, VP of Residential Marketing of Shaw Industries and VP of Hardwood of Shaw Industries, respectively, and Kemp Harr, Publisher of Floor Focus Magazine, discuss the latest hardwood flooring trends from both an aesthetic and construction perspective and the changes Shaw Industries is making to offer the consumer the right mix of hardwood flooring. Listen to the interview for more details.
June 27 2019—Santo Torcivia, an economist with Market Insights, and Kemp Harr, discuss the release of the newly published 2020 U.S. FlooReport. Listen to the interview to hear the economic premise that Santo bases his forecast on as well as a few of the books lightweights. Santo publishes this 400 page market analysis and forecast on the flooring business once a year.
June 24, 2019—Bill Freeman, regulatory and technical consultant with the RFCI, and Kemp Harr discuss how the resilient flooring business has changed during Bill's 53-year career which started with Armstrong and is ending when he retires from the Resilient Flooring trade association at the end of the year. Listen to the interview for an historic perspective on the fastest growing category in the flooring business.
June 21, 2019—Todd Van Der Kruik, VP of Global Design for Milliken, and Kemp Harr discuss Milliken’s Best of NeoCon silver award for an LVT product called Change Agent. Listen to the interview to hear specifics about this product and how it relates to the transformation that is going on at Milliken.
June 20, 2019—Tom Lape, President of Mohawk’s Residential Sales Business, and Kemp Harr discuss the strategy behind Mohawk’s American Flag event held yesterday in Calhoun, Georgia. Listen to the interview to hear more about the visibility of this location and how this relates to Mohawk’s long term sourcing strategy.
June 19, 2019—Russ Rogg, President and CEO of Metroflor, and Kemp Harr discuss Metroflor's Best of NeoCon innovation award for Metroforms with Attraxion Magnetic Attachment Technology. Listen to the interview recorded at NeoCon for more details, including a brief overview of the growth of LVT.
June 18, 2019—John Wu, Co-owner of Novalis, and Kemp Harr discuss the new AVA booth at NeoCon, the brand’s new product introductions and the long term outlook on tariffs for Chinese made LVT. Listen to the interview, recorded at NeoCon 2019, for more details.
June 17, 2019—Richard French and Ginger Gilbert, VP of Sales and VP of Creative, respectively, and Kemp Harr discuss Bentley Mill’s continued growth and the firm’s NeoCon message and new products. Listen to the interview, recorded at NeoCon, for more details.