September 8, 2015—Joe Yarbrough, President of the Carpet and Rug Institute (CRI), and Kemp Harr discuss the CRI's recent revisions to it's carpet installation standards. Listen to the interview to hear more about these revisions and the CRI's plans to publish these standards on their website in a few weeks.
September 3, 2015—Cathy Buchanan, Operations Manager at Independent Carpet One Floor and Home, and Kemp Harr discuss the current sales volume and her promotion plans for the fall selling season at her retail store just outside Detroit, Michigan. Listen to the interview to hear her advertising and diversification plans. So far her business is up 16% this year.
September 1, 2015—Terry Green, General Manager for Rubenstein's Contract Carpet, and Kemp Harr discuss the hype around the replacement of 80,000 square yards of commercial carpet at the Portland Airport. Listen to the interview to get the contractor's perspective on the scale of this project, how the old carpet compares to its replacement in construction and why this project has created such a social media frenzy. Rubenstein's installed the original carpet 28 years ago and was chosen to do the replacement work. The Port of Portland, which owns the PDX airport was extremely diligent in the selection and construction of the new carpet.
August 25, 2015—Ginger Gilbert, Creative Director with J+J Flooring Group, and Kemp Harr discuss J+J's recent design symposium focused on identifying design trends in the Senior Living Healthcare sector. Listen to the interview for more details. J+J Flooring Group has published a report as a result of this meeting.
August 24, 2015—John Baugh, Managing director with Stifel Nicolaus, and Kemp Harr discuss the second quarter performance of the publicly traded flooring producers as well as the cause for the rapid decline of the U.S. Stock Market. Listen to the interview for more details.
August 20, 2015—Anne Demers, Marketing Director at Specialty Tile, a tile distributor based in Atlanta, and Kemp Harr discuss why Anne travels to Italy every year for the Cersaie Show—the largest ceramic tile trade show in the world. Listen to the interview to hear more about the show, Specialty's business and current tile trends.
August 17, 2015—Dean Thompson, President of the Resilient Floor Covering Institute (RFCI), and Kemp Harr discuss the size and growth rate of the Luxury Vinyl Tile (LVT) market and why it is one of the fastest growing categories in the flooring business. Listen to the interview for more details.
August 14, 2015—Chip Hartzog and Marcel Bornheim, Oerlikon's President-USA and VP Customer Service (respectively), and Kemp Harr discuss the ribbon cutting of Oerlikon's Dalton service center. Listen to the interview to hear more about Oerlikon and the purpose for this new Dalton location.
August 13, 2015—Gary Johnston, Marketing Director for Stainmaster, and Kemp Harr discuss Invista's Stainmaster Carpet Top Dog Competition which runs for two months starting in September. In this competition, flooring retailers who grow their Stainmaster carpet sales by the highest percentage will win designation as the Top Dog and their sales associates will receive prizes. Listen to the interview for more details and also hear about Invista's national consumer advertising plans.
August 12, 2015—John McGrath, Director with Install, and Kemp Harr discuss what the organization is and what Install is doing to solve the flooring industry's issues around having enough trained floorcovering installers to satisfy the demand.