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Face to Face
Standing
Apart
As a full-service workroom supplier, Textol Systems can
manufacture products customers need andno one else has.
D&WC: Tell us about your company.
Lawrence Wolfin, Vice President, Sales:
Textol was started in 1965 as an adjunct to our original factory,
which was a custom machine shop. We originally set up Textol to
produce linear actuators, which is the motion we still use to run
our machinery to sew and place snaps.
Textol was founded by Julius Wolfin and is now run by his sons,
my
bother Richard and I. We have 25 employees at our New Jersey facility
in an 11,000-square-foot space, and we have another location in
North Carolina. We have a sales force that covers the entire United
States.
D&WC: What best describes your
niche in the marketplace?
Wolfin: Our niche
is that we respond to our customers with quality
product and service. We ship same day if items are ordered by 3
p.m. Eastern time. There is always an owner available to talk to
any
customer, and we set up program buying for our largest customers.
D&WC: What window
coverings products did you handle initially? What products do you
handle today?
Wolfin: We originally
produced snap tape and Roman and Austrian tapes on the linear actuator
machines. Today we have a full-service
workroom supply catalogue and another segment of our business that
is industrial VelcroR sales. We are one of the largest distributors
of
Velcro products in the world.
D&WC: Who are your customers?
What parts of the country do you service?
Wolfin: We service
the entire United States and many foreign markets. We import and
export to all places on the globe. We travel to Europe and Asia
regularly to meet with vendors and customers alike.
To cover our market, we have five in-house sales people and four
regional sales people throughout the country.
D&WC: What are some of
the key factors involved in your growth and success?
Wolfin: Service, service
and more service.
D&WC: What are your strengths
in the marketplace?
Wolfin: We are responsive
to and innovative for our customers. We
have the ability to manufacture products that set us apart form
our
competitors. We have computerized all of our production equipment,
which allows us to be much more efficient.
D&WC: Do you have a company
Web site, and how is it used to communicate with customers?
Wolfin: We have three
Web sites that have business-to-business and e-commerce availability.
One site sells only Velcro, another sells only
our trim line and the third has all of our drapery supplies on it.
We are fully computerized so that our Web orders integrate into
our
corporate software and accounting program.
D&WC: Do you educate your customers?
Wolfin: We have an
on-staff consultant who runs her own workroom to answer customer
questions. We also work closely with the Custom Home Furnishings
Academy to bring products to market that the instructors utilize.
We have recently brought in Skirtex after one of the
teachers needed a source for this item.
D&WC: Where do you see
yourself and your company five years from now? Are there additional
areas within the industry that you would like to get involved in?
Wolfin: As we move
forward we believe there is much growth potential in our industry
and will constantly be adding to our product line to cater to customers
who never thought about Textol before.
We constantly listen to our customers and have been adding to our
product line with each issue of our catalogue.
For example, in cooperation with two partner companies we have
introduced the Orb, which caters to every segment of the window
covering industry.
Textol Systems
435 Meadow Ln.
Carlstadt, NJ 07072
(201) 935-1222
(800) 624-8746
fax: (201) 935-1824
E-mail: sales@textol.com
www.draperysupply.com
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