Flooring Podcast

Santo Torcivia Analyzes the Industry’s Hard Surface Sector – Part 5

October 3, 2006—Santo Torcivia, President of the consulting firm, Market Insights/Torcivia and publisher of US FLOOReport, in the fifth and final part of a five part series looks at the changing landscape in the hard surface sector of the floor covering business discussing consolidation of the laminate sector and his expectation of how the sector will look in years to come. Torcivia also talks about the effects Shaw and Mohawk has had in the hard surface sector.

Tom Rennie, TLR Consulting Analyses the Carpet Sector – Part 1 (16:59)

October 2, 2006—Tom Rennie, President, TLR Consulting and Editor of the Commercial Carpet, in the first part of a three-part series, evaluates the current state of the carpet segment comparing its health today with that of October of 2005, discussing carpet sales in 2006, how the slowdown in housing has effected the sector and compare sales of the hard and soft sectors of the industry

Santo Torcivia Analyzes the Industry’s Hard Surface Sector – Part 3 (11:01)

October 1, 2006—Santo Torcivia, President of the consulting firm, Market Insights/Torcivia and publisher of US FLOOReport, in the third part of a five part series, looks at the changing landscape in the hard surface sector of the floor covering business discussing the laminate, hardwood, and ceramic sectors, the uniquenesses and his expectations for each category. Torcivia talks about the high-end of the flooring market and his expectations for this market segment.

Santo Torcivia Analyzes the Industry’s Hard Surface Sector – Part 2 (10:05)

September 29, 2006—Santo Torcivia, President of the consulting firm, Market Insights/Torcivia and publisher of US FLOOReport, in the second part of a five part series looks at the changing landscape in the hard surface sector of the floor covering business discussing the laminate sector, European producers and the manufacturing facilities that many have opened in the U.S., the need for these players to be vertically integrated. Torcivia also details his list of the most significant developments in the hard surface sector over the past five years.

Santo Torcivia Analyzes the Industry’s Hard Surface Sector – Part 1

September 27, 2006—Santo Torcivia, President of the consulting firm, Market Insights/Torcivia and publisher of US FLOOReport, in the first part of a five part series, looks at the changing landscape in the hard surface sector of the floor covering business discussing the hard surface verses soft surface clash in the marketplace and some of the reasons behind carpet’s market share losses. Torcivia discusses growth among the hard surface product categories over the last several years and the reasons behind this growth, focusing on growth in the ceramic sector and the expansion of ceramic manufacturing facilities in the U.S.

Shaw Industries’ VP, International Sales John Davis, Looks at the International Market Place – Part

September 26, 2006—John Davis, VP of International Sales at Shaw Industries in the final part of a two-part series talks about the international floor covering marketplace focusing on areas of prime growth and some of the problems that have occurred in some international markets. Davis discusses growth in the some of the Middle Easterns markets, Shaw’s plans for launching new products at Domotex 2007 and his expectations for growth in 2007 and beyond in the international marketplace.

Floor Focus Co-Publisher Frank O’Neill and Industry Events of the Week

September 26, 2006—Frank O’Neill, co-publisher Floor Focus discusses the World Floor Covering Association (WFCA) code of conduct, a requirement for retailer membership in the association and he also offers updates information regarding their new website WFCA.org. Also discussed: Comments made by Lowe’s officials concerning economic conditions over the next 12 months and the actions the company will take in response; The kick off of Cersaie: The launch of Interface’s new consulting unit InterfaceRaise and; The National Association of Home Builders Model Green Home Building Guidelines.

John Simonson on the Floor Covering Industries New & Revised Websites – Part 1 (10:15)

September 24, 2006—John Simonson, President, Webstream Dynamics, in the first part of a five-part serie, discusses some of the changes that have occurred on the internet within the floor covering sector and the growing level of consumer sophistication online. the general likes, dislikes of consumers and the growing level of traffic on the internet. Simonson also begins his review of the new or recently revised websites shawfloor.com, carpetone.com and wfca.org.

John Simonson on the Floor Covering Industries New & Revised Websites – Part 2 (12:28)

September 24, 2006—John Simonson, President, Webstream Dynamics, in the second part of a five-part series talks about some of the new features materalizing on industry websites including visualization tools, notebooks, live chats and upgraded store locators. He also discusses consumer reaction to these features and what the next round of upgraded features may bring. Simonson talks about the concept of following up on leads sent to retailers by manufacturer and other websites to determine the outcome of a store visit. Also discussed are the differences in dealer locators and the option of product specific locators as present on the shawfloors.com site.

John Simonson on the Floor Covering Industries New & Revised Websites – Part 3 (11:14)

September 24, 2006—John Simonson, President, Webstream Dynamics, in the third part of a five-part series discusses some of the similarities and the differences in the new or recently revised industry websites, shawfloors.com, wfca.org and carpetone.com. Simonson talks about the advantages and disadvantages of including price on websites and the possible limitations industry players may experiance with regard to including price an industry websites.