With products named Bookworm, Scribbles and Animal Crackers, Joy Dobosh said she’s having the time of her life selling quirky tufted carpets with fun names to niche customers.
Although much of the carpet industry has shrunk along with housing market, Mrs. Dobosh’s fourth-generation family business recently purchased a $1 million corporate headquarters while adding 5,100 square feet to its distribution center to meet expected demand this year.
For Mrs. Dobosh, namesake and CEO of recently renamed Joy Carpets & Co., selling carpet has always been a family affair. Her grandfather, O.W. Jorges, and father, Ed Jorges, got their start selling textiles in the 1940s after her dad returned from World War II.
“He and my grandfather were selling hosiery and chenille bedspreads, and chenille was the beginning of tufted carpet,” Mrs. Dobosh said. “So because dad and my grandfather were selling chenille products, bedspreads, bathrobes, when tufting machines were perfected, they just jumped right into that; it was kind of natural.”
The company sold mainly commercial carpet for many years until Mrs. Dobosh’s husband, Dennis, took over the business.
“I would definitely say that we’ve certainly grown, maybe in a different direction from where my father envisioned, in specialty products, for specialty designs,” Mrs. Dobosh said.
For a small company, it would be foolish to compete fully in the standard residential carpet business, said Mrs. Dobosh, because the economies of scale tip decisively in her larger competitors’ direction.
Mrs. Dobosh, assisted by sons Nick and Andrew, said the company’s diversified customer base and product line has allowed her to ride out the recession by producing and distributing specialty carpet to customers and carpet dealers who want something a bit different.
The senior Mr. Dobosh, company chairman, has been happy with his sons’ performance. Each family member plays an important role in the 20-employee operation.
“Nick is very strong in sales and marketing and design, and he is really the face of Joy Carpets out in the marketplace,” said the elder Dobosh. “Andrew is more administratively oriented, and handles production planning, information systems and inventory control, and he’s more inclined to look at nuts and bolts of daily administration.”
Dennis Dobosh, who hasn’t had a vacation since 1993 and said he doesn’t want one, said Joy Carpets & Co. grew by 20 percent over the last five years while the carpet industry painfully contracted.
He attributes the company’s success to maintaining a stable organization and constantly searching for customers.
“You don’t have all your eggs in one basket, and you have a broad base in markets, so if there is a fluctuation, you’re not as dramatically affected as some of these major mills,” Mr. Dobosh said.
The carpet company will manufacture carpet at its own plant or contract the work out, whichever is most lucrative, he said.
“The profitability aspect gives us the flexibility to do a lot of things, not only on property, but on expanding styles, expanding inventory — you have a lot of flexibility to do things other mills can’t do,” Mr. Dobosh said.