After fewer than three years, a once-ballyhooed alliance between Shaw Industries and lifestyle maven Martha Stewart came to a quiet end.
A spokesperson for Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia confirmed in February 2005 that the company’s partnership with the Dalton, Georgia-based flooring giant had “concluded at the end of 2004.”
When Bob Shaw, chairman and CEO of his namesake company, announced the deal with Stewart in early 2002, he called it a “game changer” for the industry. But just weeks after that announcement, reports began to surface of potential legal issues for Stewart. She was convicted in March 2004 on felony charges connected to an improper stock sale.
The terms of the deal called for Shaw Industries to make and distribute Martha Stewart Signature soft-surface and hard-surface floor coverings. Julius Shaw, then an executive vice president at Shaw Industries, admitted that the Stewart line was only in about half the number of stores nationwide that officials had anticipated.