The real estate crisis cut deeply into the carpet industry’s bottom line, but Chattanooga-based Dixie Group Chairman and CEO Dan Frierson said that his company may have figured out how to return to profitability.
Dixie was able to stem the rising tide of red ink last quarter through a combination of cost cutting and investments in new technology — technology like the one-of-a-kind ColorTron machine the company recently purchased for its Eton, Ga., plant.
“It’s a new technology, and you’re able to have much more control over your pattern,” Mr. Frierson said. “You can make a tufted product that looks like a woven product, which really gives you a superior look and styling capability.”
In other words, Dixie has added the capability to make wall-to-wall carpet with designs and colors previously limited to more expensive and time-consuming area rugs, Mr. Frierson said.