Flooring Podcast

Brand Biz’s Paul Friederichsen on the Do’s & Don’ts of Green Marketing – Part 2 (10:35)

June 5, 2007—Paul Frederichsen, President, BrandBiz, in the second part of a three-part series, looks at green marketing and the market that exists for sustainable products in the residential sector, discussing the consumers and the percentage of consumers that will pay a premium with no residual benefit other than doing the right thing for the environment. Friederichsen discusses how manufacturers and retailers who have an environmental story to tell might position themselves in the marketplace and how retailer swith an environmentally-skewed audience might approach that market.

Brand Biz’s Paul Friederichsen on the Do’s & Don’ts of Green Marketing – Part 1 (11:11)

June 4, 2007—Paul Frederichsen, President, BrandBiz, in the first part of a three-part series looks at green marketing and the market that exists for sustainable products in the residential sector. Friederichsen discusses LOHAS, an acronym for - Lifestyles of Health and Sustainability, a demographic that represent 23% of adults, or more than 36 million consumers, and a $229 billion market and the types of products LOHAS consumers buy.

Barker on the Market (36:35)

June 2, 2007—Mike Barker, Investment and Retirement Management discusses the record set by the S&P 500 this week and its implications, the correction in the Shanghai market and its lack of impact on the U.S. market and the reaction of the market to yesterday’s GDP report. Barker discusses the minutes from the Federal Reserve Open Market committee meeting earlier this month, Stifel Nicolaus’s upgrade of Mohawk and the factors he will be keying on going forward.

Bob Peoples on CARE’s 5th Annual Report – Part 4

June 1, 2007—Bob Peoples, Executive Director, CARE, Carpet America Recovery Effort and Director of Sustainability, CRI, Carpet & Rug Institute, in the final part of a four-part series, talks about the Carpet America Recovery Effort (CARE) and the association’s annual conference and its 5th annual report. Peoples talks about the memorandum of understanding that created the CARE program, the fact that no other industries has yet followed suit, his expectations for the program in the future in terms of the number of collectors, specific fiber recovery, and the number of manufacturers producing product from post-consumer carpet.

Economist John McDevitt on the Economy

May 31, 2007—John McDevitt, Former 3M Corporate Economist looks at the economy answering the question: Have we seen the worst of the slowdown? McDevitt talks about the housing sector as he shares his forecast for the remainder of 2007 and for 2008. He also disucsses the affects of the subprime mortgage situation on the market and his view on housing prices and inventories. McDevitt also discusses the commercial marketplace, consumer reaction to rising gasoline prices, his forecast for retail spending for the remainder of the year, his expectations for the Fed and for the manufacturing sector.

Bob Peoples on CARE’s 5th Annual Report – Part 3 (13:25)

May 31, 2007—Bob Peoples, Executive Director, CARE, Carpet America Recovery Effort and Director of Sustainability, CRI, Carpet & Rug Institute, in the third part of a four-part series, talks about the Carpet America Recovery Effort (CARE) and the associations annual conference and its 5th annual report. Peoples discusses the organization’s efforts at seeking new applications for post-consumer carpet, including nylon 6,6, which accounts for about one third of carpet collected and for developing uses for each of the fiber types collected as well as measures that are currently taking place to produce carpet of the future that has a higher degree of recyclability.

The Week in the Flooring Industry with Floor Focus Publisher Kemp Harr

May 30, 2007—Kemp Harr, Publisher, Floor Focus magazine looks back at the past week in the floor covering industry discussing: Home Depot and Lowe’s annual shareholders meetings; The effects of rising gasoline prices on consumer spending, according to BIGresearch’s May Consumer Intentions & Actions Survey; A Consumer Reports National Research Center survey revealing women’s shopping habits on the Internet and; StarNet’s newest member, Salt Lake City-based Diversified Flooring.

Bob Peoples on CARE’s 5th Annual Report – Part 2 (14:44)

May 30, 2007—Bob Peoples, Executive Director, CARE, Carpet America Recovery Effort and Director of Sustainability, CRI, Carpet & Rug Institute, in the second part of a four-part series, talks about the players in the post-consumer processing system including collectors, sorters, processors and manufacturers and what role they play including how many players are in each category. Peoples discusses the positive and negative events that affected the progress of CARE during 2006 and the addition of a face fiber element to the 2006 CARE annual report.

Bob Peoples on CARE’s 5th Annual Report – Part 1 (12:19)

May 29, 2007—Bob Peoples, Executive Director, CARE, Carpet America Recovery Effort and Director of Sustainability, CRI, Carpet & Rug Institute, in the first part of a four-part series, discusses the CARE 5th annual conference, which took place in Charleston, SC earlier this month and the turn-out for the event. Peoples talks about the organization’s mission, its 5th annual progress report, the reasons for the changes from 2005 and the changes that have taken place in post-consumer carpet collection and processing over the past 12 months. He also discusses the new products that are now being produced from carpet discards.

NWFA’s Ed Korczak Looks Back at the 2007 Convention & Expo – Part 3 (13:30)

May 25, 2007—Ed Korczak, Executive Director, National Wood Flooring Association, (NWFA), in the final part of a three-part series, discusses the National Wood Flooring Convention & Expo, which was held last month in Denver. Korczak also talks about his expectations for the wood flooring sector going forward, some of the current trends in wood flooring some of the trends to come, the boom in reclaimed wood and China and the North American wood flooring marketplace.