Bob Shaw had been in the carpet business for more than five decades when, at nearly 80 years old, he decided to start a new company from scratch in Dalton, Georgia, known as Engineered Floors.
Over the past six years, the privately held company has grown to four plants and 3,000 employees with 2016 estimated revenues reportedly in the $800 million range.
“They thought the best years of the carpet industry were over with, but I see opportunity here,” Shaw said in an earlier interview.
The 85-year-old Shaw’s newest venture now is the third largest carpet company in North America. Engineered Floors is building a plant in Whitfield County, Georgia, that will be the largest carpet factory in the world when fully built out, according to the company.
“He knows what he’s doing,” says James Lesslie, Engineered Floors’ executive vice president of sales and marketing.