January 13, 2015—Bill Carstarphen, CEO of Pharr Yarns; Mark Clayton, President of Phenix; and Rich Pattinson, President of Pharr Yarns, discuss the merger between Phenix Carpet and Pharr Yarns. Listen to the interview to hear more details about these two businesses, their fit in the marketplace and how this merger strengthens both entities and still allows Pharr to grow its business with its diversified mix of yarn customers.
January 12, 2015—Amie Gilmore, Show Director for Surfaces, and Kemp Harr, discuss expectations for next week's Surfaces show which is one week earlier this year to facilitate a tie-in with Design and Constructions week. Listen to the interview to hear more about the 125,000 people that are expected in Vegas next week to attend the five different shows that are all taking place in the same week. Amie also talks about a couple of new education and orientation events plus the Emerging Professionals social event.
January 9, 2015—Cathy Buchanan, Operations Manager at Independent Carpet One in Westland, Michigan, and Kemp Harr,discuss a few of the victories she has had at her store recently and her take on the new product introductions from Carpet One's winter convention.
January 8, 2015—Eric Demaree, President of Carpet One Floor and Home, and Kemp Harr, discuss the group's performance in 2014, its key initiatives for 2015, as well as the challenges retailers face in this ever evolving sector. Listen to the interview to hear more and to hear Eric's outlook for 2015.
January 7, 2015—Pami Bhullar, Director of Retail Development for Invista, and Kemp Harr, discuss how retailers interact with consumers and the need for retailers to evolve to integrate more closely with consumers' pre-shopping research. Listen to the interview to hear more about Pami's 12 New Year's resolutions. Feel free to contact Pami, Stainmaster, or Floor Focus for a copy of this simple New Year's message.
January 6, 2015—Gary Cissell, President of Mill Creek Carpet and Tile, and Kemp Harr, discuss Mill Creek's retail floorcovering business which includes 16 retail stores in Oklahoma, Kansas, Missouri and Texas. Listen to the interview to hear more about this business and Gary's plans for growth in 2015.
January 5, 2015—Aaron Pirner, CEO of Cap Carpets; Tom Pack, President of Manufacturing at White Oak; and Kemp Harr, discuss last week's news that White Oak has purchased Carousel Carpet from the Dixie Group. Listen to the interview to hear more about the strategy behind the acquisition and what this will mean to White Oak and Carousel customers.
January 2, 2015—Scott Appel, President of Touch of Color, a rapidly growing floorcovering dealer based in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and Kemp Harr, discuss Scott's product buying and mix strategy for the new year. Listen to the interview to hear more details about the opportunities that diverse dealers have in this business based on being in the middle of two inverse supply and demand economic equations. Touch of Color was ranked at number 77 in our top 100 retailers list and Scott was our Grand Prize winner in our first Future Focus Awards.
December 11, 2014—Santo Torcivia, an economist that focuses his analysis in the Floorcovering business, and Kemp Harr, discuss Santo's December Market Monitor report which gives readers an excellent summary of how the floorcovering business ended the year plus his outlook for 2015. Listen to the interview for a few of the highlights of this thorough analysis.
December 19, 2014—Dominic Rice and Deb Lechner, VP and Director of Marketing, respectively, for Armstrong's commercial flooring business, and Kemp Harr, Publisher of Floor Focus Magazine, discuss Armstrong's expanded formats and visuals in the Linoleum category. Armstrong's recent announcement about exiting the European flooring sales business has not impacted its supply of linoleum products. Listen to the interview to hear more about Armstrong's new modular formats, and more.