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DIXON ACQUIRES BLIND X-PRESS SOUTH John Dixon, Inc., Cleveland, OH, has acquired the assets including the customer accounts of Blind X-Press South. Dixon is a fabricator and distributor of custom window treatments. It now will offer complete control over mini-blind fabrication that will be in-house at Dixon's facility. NEW YORK DRAPERY CLINICS SET Hartsdale Fabrics, Hartsdale, NY, and The Sewing Gallery, West Nyack, NY, are offering hands-on, two-day drapery clinics on June 3 to 5 and June 11 to 13, respectively. The clinics teach the basics of professional window treatment fabrication. Students will learn how to choose the right fabrics, calculate yardage, match pattern repeats, draft patterns, measure, install and more. The 2 1/2-day program is designed for anyone who is interested in starting a home decorating business or someone who wants more professional results. The program is taught by Pamela Damour, an author and seminar leader to the trade who is seen frequently on The Discovery Channel. For more information, call (914) 428-7780. OUTSTANDING RETAILERS HONORED The Retailer of the Year Awards, sponsored by the New York Home Textiles Show® and the Home Fashion Products Association (HFPA), were presented in April at New York City's Windows on the World. For the first time, the 14th annual awards recognized retailers for excellence in four business-specific categories: product assortment and innovation, customer service, visual merchandising, and promotion and advertising. The winners of the 1999 Retailer of the Year Award are: • Product Assortment and Innovation: ABC Carpet & Home. The store's distinctive merchandising style embodies its mission to have "the ambiance of a flea market, a country antiques fair, a bustling Middle Eastern bazaar and a bargain-filled warehouse sale, yet with the personalized attention one finds in a boutique." • Customer Service: Country Curtains. Almost 43 years after its founding as the country's first mail order curtain company, Country Curtains has become a multi-million-dollar catalog company with 19 stores widely known for its product quality and customer service. • Visual Merchandising: Neiman Marcus Direct. Recognized for its impressive ability to bring the printed pages of its catalog to life, Neiman Marcus Direct was selected for its special styling, lighting and layout concepts combined with appealing copy that bring an exciting new dimension to retailing. • Promotions and Advertising: Target. Throughout the past year, Target has gone to great lengths to identify with consumers while shaping its image as fast, fun and friendly. With 851 stores in 41 states, Target has the ability to appeal to today's savvy consumers through highly sophisticated advertising and promotional campaigns. In addition, two individuals were recognized for their achievements in the home fashions arena: Wilfred Stroud Jr., Strouds, received the 1999 Retailer of the Year Lifetime Achievement Award, and Mark Grand, Sears, Roebuck & Co., received the Retailer of the Year Outstanding Merchant Award.

HUNTER DOUGLAS RELEASES INSIGHT SCHEDULE Hunter Douglas Window Fashions, Upper Saddle River, NJ, has launched its newest educational program, Insight. The program offers classes and training sessions in various topics from color and design to financial analysis, marketing and new business building technology. It also provides educational information on new Hunter Douglas products. Hunter Douglas will team up with area fabricators to bring the Insight program to Salt Lake City, UT; Kansas City, MO; Seattle, WA; Portland, OR; Omaha, NE; and Sacramento, CA. The schedule opened in Salt Lake City on April 27 and will wind up in Sacramento on June 8. SURTEX ANNOUNCES STUDENT COMPETITION WINNER DeAnna Rigter of Savannah College of Art & Design, Savannah, GA, was named winner of the SURTEX® 1999 International Student design competition. In keeping with this year's theme, Bon Appetit!, Rigter designed a restaurant interior incorporating a variety of surface designs used on upholstery, wall covering, flooring, window treatments, tablecloths, napkins and flatware. Rigter's project, entitled The Cracked Pea, demonstrated her creativity and well-thought-out design development through the use of varied woven, embroidered, applied and dyed techniques. For her first prize entry, Rigter will receive a trip to SURTEX99, $500 and a one-week internship with Bogdanow Partners Architects, New York, NY. MUSEUM DESIGNS ADDED TO LINE Eisenhart Wallcoverings Co., Hanover, PA, and Key Wallcoverings Co., Theodore, AL, were hosts for high tea and a cocktail reception in Atlanta, GA, in February to launch A Grand Design, the latest product collection featuring licensed designs from the Victoria and Albert (V&A) Museum, London, England. More than 100 decorators, designers, retailers and installers attended the reception. Emma Saunders, manager of V&A Licensing, traveled from London to present the provenance and historical anticdotes on the archival documents used for the collection. CPS BREAKS GROUND FOR NEW FACILITY CPS Resources, Inc., Matthews, NC, held a groundbreaking ceremony to commemorate the construction of its new corporate facility. The new office is located in a 33,000-square-foot building that is expandable to 80,000 square feet on an 11-acre site at 900 W. Four Lakes Dr., Matthews, NC 28105. CPS Resources is a 13-year-old company that manufactures hot stamp foils and hot stamp equipment. CORRECTION In the March 1999 cover story, "Customers Come Calling," a misspelling occurred in identifying Dennis Redic of BlindVisions, Inc., Alpharetta, GA. We regret the error. Redic and BlindVisions has since gone on to win Best New Style Concept and Most Innovative Overall Design for horizontal blinds in the 1999 WCMA Most Innovative Products Awards sponsored by the Window Covering Manufacturers Association. (D&WC, April 1999)