The world's biggest carpet maker has brought nearly 1,000 of its sales agents and managers from across the country to Chattanooga this week for the biggest company sales meeting of its type in 16 years to highlight how it is growing and improving its brands of carpets, ceramic tile, luxury vinyl tiles and other hardwood floor offerings.
Shaw Industries, the Dalton, Georgia-based floorcovering manufacturer owned by Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway, is bringing about 200 of its executives and managers to Chattanooga this week from Dalton to meet with the company's sales staff from across North America to help promote Shaw's new products for next year across all types of flooring.
"We've had an excellent couple of years, and we're optimistic about 2020," Shaw Industries President Tim Baucom said. "We certainly have great pride in being the world's biggest - and we humbly think the best - carpet manufacturer. But we've really got to shift to saying we are a great flooring solutions provider."
As more homeowners change the flooring of their public spaces in their homes from carpet to hard surfaces, Shaw and other carpet makers are moving to grow and improve hardwood, ceramic tile and other hard surface flooring. At the same time, the company continues to improve the resiliency and sustainability of its carpets, which remain popular in bedrooms and private areas of most homes and businesses.
In 2016, Shaw acquired US Floors Inc., a leading marketer of composite core flooring, cork, bamboo and hardwood product. Piet Dossche, the founder and CEO of US Floors who also serves as executive vice president of hard surfaces for Shaw, was an innovator at US Floors in the luxury vinyl tile (LVT), which he helped create in 2015.
"With the help of Shaw, LVT has completely revolutionized this segment of the flooring industry," Dossche said, noting the improved appearance of LTV and the click-on installation that offers a more affordable way to have hardwood-like floors without as much installation expense.
With new technologies to improve the appearance and installation ease of LVT surfaces, Dossche said luxury vinyl has grown to comprise about 20% of all new flooring "and there seems to be no end to that growth."
Shaw and US Floors has captured about 40% of the growing LVT flooring market, leading the company to make a $30 million conversion of an old rug plant in Ringgold to make LTV, starting in 2017, at Plant RP in Ringgold, Georgia.
"I think LVT has been as disruptive in our industry as anything since the 1970s when tufting displaced weaving [in the production of carpet]," Baucom said. "It [LVT] has really gotten 100% of the industry's growth in recent years and everything else has been crowded out because of that."
Baucom said he is still optimistic about carpet sales in coming years and doesn't foresee any economic recession on the horizon. In fact, because housing starts haven't kept up with demand, Baucom said he expects housing and building activity to outperform the overall economy, especially if the industry is able to do more to encourage more workers to enter construction and carpet installation occupations.
"Although residential carpet sales are now growing, carpet is still the biggest, largest category of housing and carpet is still the product of choice in the private parts of the home," Baucom said.
The Shaw Industries president said flooring can help create more excitement and energy in both new home and remodeling markets.
The Shaw executives pitching their new products and approach this week include a new addition to the management team this year from Chattanooga - former Chattem CEO Robert Long. Baucom said Long has expertise and experience in the over-the-counter drug industry in building name brands, which Shaw is eager to bring to the floorcovering industry.
"He [Long] works on what he calls "strategic doing" and has helped us as we try to build brand awareness," Baucom said.
Consumers have traditionally not been as brand aware in the flooring industry as they are in most other purchases they make, but Baucom said Shaw and others are trying to do more to build up brands to help consumers to easily recognize and appreciate distinctive characteristics in the style, quality and company reputation for different types of carpets, wood floors and tiles. Shaw is highlighting its COREtec brand of luxury vinyl flooring.
"The flooring industry is a great $25 billion industry at wholesale, but we have to fight for the consumer dollar all the time," Dossche said. "If we can create more brand awareness, even in just this one area, I think we can lift the entire industry."
Baucom said Shaw provided the opportunity for some of its Dalton staff to retire this fall, but he said the company is spending more on marketing and brand development and continues to work on new and improved products.
To promote that effort, Shaw decided to bring its sales representatives close to its hometown in the Carpet Capital of Dalton so it chose the Chattanooga Convention Center for its week-long sales event.
"This whole week is about celebrating our company and we wanted this to happen in Chattanooga because we are committed to Chattanooga and Northwest Georgia where we started and have grown," Dossche said. "To make it easy, we could have done this meeting in Dallas. But we wanted to do this near our home where we employ our people, where we are committed to our communities and where we see a lot of excitement."
Contact Dave Flessner at dflessner@timesfreepress.com or at 423-757-6340.