November 5, 2010—Fred Reitz (President), Bob Wagner (President-Elect), and Michelle Miller (Executive VP), with the North American Association of Floor Covering Distributors discuss their upcoming annual meeting which will be held November 16-18 at The Broadmoor Hotel in Colorado Springs. Listen to the interview to hear more about the health of flooring distributors overall and details about the meeting.
November 3, 2010—Summer Turner, owner of two House of Carpets stores in Middle Tennessee, and Kemp Harr discuss her recent appointment to the board of directors for the World Floor Covering Association. Listen to the interview to hear more about Summer's stores and the WFCA.
November 2, 2010—Allison Rea, Director of Marketing with FloorExpo (FEI Group), and Kemp Harr discuss how her members' primary promotion medium is the internet. Listen to the interview to hear more details about what works and doesn't work with this group of professional flooring contractors focused in the builder and multi-family sectors of the flooring business.
November 1, 2010—Jim Mudd, the newly elected president of the National Floorcovering Alliance, and Kemp Harr discuss details about his retail flooring business in Louisville, Kentucky. Listen to the interview to hear more about Sam Kinnaird's Flooring and the NFA.
October 29, 2010—Kaye Gosline, Director of Global A&D for Milliken, and Kemp Harr discuss the traffic and trends at NeoCon East in Baltimore. Listen to the interview to hear more.
October 26, 2010—Roger Farabee, Sr. VP of Marketing with Unilin and Mohawk Hard Surfaces, and Kemp Harr discusses the Human Habitat display at the Dallas Zoo (a hard surface tie-in with the Smartstrand Challenge). Roger also discusses his outlook on why hardwood is forecasted to take market share as the economy starts to recover. Listen to the interview to hear more details from Roger's perspective.
October 25, 2010—Jeff Levin, counsel with the Coalition for American Hardwood Parity (CAHP), discusses last week's filing of an unfair trade petition regarding imported engineered wood flooring from China. Listen to the interview to hear who is part of the CAHP and what they hope to gain by filing this petition.
October 22, 2010—Kermit Baker, a leading Harvard Economist, and Kemp Harr discuss two very positive economic indicators released this week. The American Institute of Architecture's Billing Index is over 50 for the first time in two and a half years and the Leading Indicator for Remodeling shows that spending for home improvements will increase by double digits next year. Listen to the interview for more details.
October 20, 2010—Jay Smith (President), Graham Howerton (VP of Multi-family) and Kemp Harr discuss FloorExpo's (FEI Group) annual meeting last week in Atlanta. Listen to the interview to hear how this leading group of flooring contractors focused on the builder and multi-family housing markets are making out during this prolonged housing slump.
October 19, 2010—Tom Lape, President of Mohawk's Residential Business, and Kemp Harr discuss the results of a recent consumer research project that tested for consumer satisfaction with carpet. Listen to the interview to hear more details about the sample base and the discovery around which fiber type produced the most favorable results. The three types of fibers purchased by the consumers in the sample base were Nylon, SmartStrand and Polyester.