September 30, 2004—From Cersaie 2004 in Bologna, Italy, Frank O’Neill, Publisher, Floor Focus magazine reviews this giant international ceramic tile show discussing the venue, the exhibitors, the attendees and the level of excitement, O'Neill also talks about the colors, textures and new product offerings at this show.
September 29, 2004—Zahir Palanpur, President of the Atlanta-based Azul Arc International discusses outsourcing and the considerable cost savings available to industry companies that outsource tasks such as, digital/ web, CAD, graphic and 3D design services, business application functions and even customer-focused functions such as research, analytics customer support.
September 29, 2004—Mike Barker, Investment & Retirement Management looks at the market over the past few days and its relationship with rising oil prices. He evaluates the 3.3% jump in GDP and other recent economics reports and discusses upcoming 3rd quarter earnings reports. Barker also looks at the market's current focus and talks about when it may break from its current trading range.
September 28, 2004—Kyle Strait, New Product Marketing Manager, Tennant Company discusses ReadySpace, a new technology in carpet maintenance from the company that, promised to return clean carpets to service in typically less than 30 minutes. Strait outlines how the technology works and how he expects it to impact the way commercial carpets are cleaned in the future.
September 27, 2004—FloorRadio regular Paul Friederichsen, Executive VP at the advertising and marketing firm The Hauser Group reports back on a recent mystery shopping excursion where he visited two Carpet One members, an Abbey Carpet retailer, two boutique retailers, two Lowe’s stores, a Home Depot and Interface’s Atlanta InterfaceFLOR location.
September 26, 2004—Dan Hendrix, President & CEO, Interface discusses the company and the economic downturn of recent years, its efforts to expand modular carpet into the retail space, health care, educational, hospitality markets and into the consumer market with InterfaceFLOR. Also discussed, Re:Source Americas and the changes in the service sector and the company’s sustainability efforts and the bottom line.
September 23, 2004—Lew Migliore, The Industry’s Trouble Shooter and President of LGM Technical Carpet Services discusses a unique and sizable side-match problem that occurred in a church installation.
September 23, 2004—Carpet & Rug Institute president Werner Braun discusses a meeting with Chinese trade representatives regarding what many view as unfair trade in the carpet arena including intellectual properties rights. Also discussed the threat of Chinese produced carpet achieving a foothold in the U.S.
September 22, 2004—
From WitexUSA, CEO Herb Biggers and Executive VP, Sales & Marketing Paul Trau discuss the new ownership of WitexUSA, its marketing plan and the company’s products including the Laura Ashley, laminate, ceramic and hardwood lines. Biggers and Trau also discuss the laminate marketplace, plans for the future, growth expectations and the big box home improvement players.
September 21, 2004—Frank O’Neill, Publisher, Floor Focus magazine and Dave Foster, Host, Floor Radio discuss: Dixie’s expectation for a 25% jump in 3rd qtr.sales and its escaping relatively unscathed from Hurricane Ivan; Armstrong’s 8th extension in its Bankruptcy proceedings; Daschle agrees to a $140B asbestos fund in the Senate; Martha's going to jail; Scotty’s files Chapter 11; The popularity of soft fiber; Is the era of inexpensive over? And, the CCA Global Partners/FCIF Charity Golf Tournament.