July 15, 2015—Cathy Buchanan, Operations Manager at Independent Carpet One in Westland, Michigan, and Kemp Harr discuss the 29% year-to-date growth in Cathy's retail store. Listen to the interview to hear more about her advertising and product mix strategy.
July 13, 2015—Andy Brumlow, VP of Product Development with Oriental Weavers, and Kemp Harr discuss trends in area rug sales. Listen to the interview to hear more information about key products introduced at the Atlanta Rug Market as well as a background on Oriental Weavers, the world's largest producer of man made area rugs.
July 10, 2015—Brandon Culpepper, VP of Specialty Sales for Karastan (Mohawk Home), and Kemp Harr discuss the latest rug introductions and market trends in the area rug business. Listen to the interview, recorded at the Atlanta Rug Market, to hear more about price points, channel to market and product trends.
July 9, 2015—Santo Torcivia, Economist with Market Insights LLC, and Kemp Harr discuss Home Depot's carpet marketshare and the industry shift toward store brands. Listen to the interview to hear how Santo calculates his marketshare estimates.
July 7, 2015—Jeff Macco, CEO with Macco's Floor Covering, and Kemp Harr discuss Home Depot's launch of LifeProof Carpet. While this may seem odd, Jeff happened to be shopping in Home Depot when a Home Depot VP was training the store staff on this "Major" fall carpet roll out. Listen to the interview for details on the product, the magnitude of the launch, the price points, the positioning strategy as well as Home Depot's core focus in the flooring department moving forward. Also hear how Jeff plans to counteract this strategy as a competitor who likes to put his retail stores nearby.
July 2, 2015 — Steve Griffity, Retiring Chief Marketing Officer with Invista, and Kemp Harr, discuss Steve's focus for the past 15 years as the steward of the Stainmaster Brand. Listen to the interview to hear Steve talk about the highlights of his career with first DuPont and then Invista.
July 1, 2015—Gary Cissell, President at Mill Creek Flooring (a 16 store regional flooring chain based in Tulsa, Oklahoma), and Kemp Harr discuss business conditions and flooring sales in the midwest. Listen to the interview to hear more about their recent uptick in business.
June 26, 2015—Alan Fennell, Resilient Flooring Market Director for Milliken, and Kemp Harr discuss Milliken's news NeoCon that the firm is launching a line of LVT products to the commercial market. Listen to the interview to hear more about the 109 styles and their decision to enter this rapidly growing category.
June 24, 2015—Reesie Duncan, VP of Creative and Design with Shaw Contract, and Kemp Harr discuss Shaw contract's noteworthy products at NeoCon. Most newsworthy is a new resilient product that's produced using the EcoWorx substrate and as a result is PVC and phthalate free. The inaugural designs of this product are part of the new "In the Park" collection. Listen to the interview for more details.
June 23, 2015—Pam Rainey, VP of Creative and Design for Patcraft, and Kemp Harr discuss Patcraft's two NeoCon awards. Patcraft won an Innovation award for a modular carpet collection called Deconstructed Metal and a Healthcare Flooring gold award for Life & Style. Listen to the interview for more details.