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Industry News
SPRINGS COMPLETES BURLINGTON ACQUISITION
Springs Industries, Inc., Fort Mill, SC, announced it has completed
the previously announced acquisition of Burlington Industries’
window treatments and bedding consumer products businesses. The sale
of Burlington’s businesses to Springs was approved on May 2 by
the U.S. Bankruptcy Court, which has jurisdiction over Burlington’s
Chapter 11 reorganization.
The purchase includes physical assets including a manufacturing facility
in Mexico, inventory and a license to use the Burlington House®
and American Lifestyle brand names on bedding, window treatments and
certain other home furnishings. In addition, Burlington has agreed
to produce finished home furnishings from its Reidsville and Stokesdale,
NC, facilities for up to one year for Springs, and also will supply
fabrics over several years that Springs will convert at its facilities
into finished products.
DDI BECOMES INTERIORS BY DECORATING DEN™
Decorating Den Interiors (DDI), Montgomery Village, MD, unveiled its
new name, Interiors by Decorating Den, and a redesigned logo at the
company’s 33rd annual conference in Orlando, FL. The name and
logo changes will be formally launched in September.
“The emphasis on the word interiors and the new icon stress to
the consumer that our interior decorators and franchise partners take
care of the entire decorating process from planning to product selection
to installation,” said Jim Bugg Jr, president and CEO.
Interiors by Decorating Den also inaugurated Decorating for a Difference,
a new fundraising partnership with the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer
Foundation and the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation. “I am extremely
proud that our franchisees pledged to raise nearly $150,000 in the
next 12 months,” Bugg said.
Established in 1969, Interiors by Decorating Den has more than 500
decorators worldwide.
BOMAR TEAMS WITH GLEN RAVEN, WAVERLY ON NEW
COLLECTIONS
Bomar Trimming, Inc., Lake Worth, FL, and Glen Raven Custom Fabrics,
Glen Raven, NC, have teamed up to develop and market collections of
Sunbrella® Decorative Trimming products. Bomar is the exclusive
licensee in North America of the Sunbrella brand for use in decorative
trimming.
The new products, ranging from fringe and cord to a full complement
of tassels and tiebacks, are made from 100 percent solution-dyed acrylic
yarns, the same material that is responsible for Sunbrella fabrics.
The new Sunbrella trimming products are available in three configurations:
a full line of solid and mixed trimming matching Sunbrella’s
most popular fabrics; a free custom-matching service creating a coordinating
trim to the customer’s own fabric; and a full service/product
program providing manufacturers, jobbers, distributors and retailers
matching trim, sample books, sample yardage and graphics design support.
In a separate announcement, Bomar has formed a licensing partnership
with Waverly to introduce Waverly Fine Trims, Tassels & Tiebacks,
a collection of elegant, decorative trims designed to coordinate with
the brand’s wovens and prints for sale through fabric stores.
The collection features 10 in-stock product options in four color
families—and 12 color combinations—with an additional 20
special-order product selections.
DECORAMA DESLEY CORTLEY ACQUIRED BY DDC ACQUISITION
PARTNERS
Decorama Desley Cortley, Hialeah, FL, has been acquired from Perfect
Fit Industries by its management and a group of investors.
“The transition gives us the financial resources to implement
our aggressive growth plan,” says George Kerr, Decorama president.
“Over the past two years we have installed numerous displays
and samples among several major retailers and built the infrastructure
to support that business. Our association with Perfect Fit allowed
us to build the foundation, and we expect the new ownership to fuel
our growth,” he adds.
Decorama is a leader in made-to-measure draperies for the home furnishings
industry. It recently entered the top-of-the-bed segment as well.
Its products are sold under its own brand and licensed brands, as
well as several private labels.
Company leadership is made up of George Kerr, president, formerly
Decorama’s general manager, and Tom Barringer, executive vice
president of sales and marketing, formerly a vice president of sales
and marketing at Perfect Fit Industries.
DDC Acquisition Partners is a private equity investment group headquartered
in Providence, RI.
AVENO LAUNCHES INSIDER TRAINING PROGRAM
Aveno Window Fashions, Inc., Atlanta, GA, launched its Aveno Insider
training program in April 2002. Participants in the program attend
a complete product line demonstration and catalog review, get hands-on
training during custom shutter measurement and installation classes,
learn business strategies tailored to the window fashions industry
in Aveno’s unique marketing and sales short-course, interact
with other industry professionals during question-and-answer sessions,
and tour the 195,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art Aveno production
facility. The daylong training program is held once each month on
site at Aveno’s Atlanta headquarters.
Small groups of 20 participants or less attend each training session.
The small group size allows for one-on-one interaction between participants
and Aveno personnel.
Afternoon tours of the production facility include expert tutorials,
given by Aveno production managers, on how to solve window coverings
issues in the field. For example, Judith Carbajal, a production manager
in Aveno’s horizontal blinds department, recently showed attendees
how to install or reinstall a cord lock or cord tilt and how to replace
horizontal slats.
HUNTER DOUGLAS PUTS ON SHOW FOR UP-AND-COMING
DESIGNERS
Hunter Douglas Window Fashions, Upper Saddle, NJ, recently presented
an informative session regarding the importance of window fashions
to design school students at Parsons School of Design in New York
City.
Playing teacher for a day, Joseph Jankoski, corporate vice president
of merchandising for Hunter Douglas, detailed new and innovative products
to the students, including Country Woods® Expose™ wood blinds
and Shaperies™ a contoured, textured alternative wood blind.
Jankoski
also reviewed some of the premier products upon which Hunter Douglas
has built its reputation.
Jankoski also spoke about how certain products can help their clients
manage issues in the home such as energy efficiency, light control
and diffusion, privacy and security at the window and even child safety.
During the presentation, students were treated to a fashion show of
products with full-size samples of Hunter Douglas products that were
walked down a runway and demonstrated for the students, who were also
given an up-close-and-personal view of each product.
DRAPER NAMED BEST IN SWEET’S
Draper, Inc., Spiceland, IN, has been named Best in Sweet’s for
having the best overall marketing effort in the construction marketplace.
The McGraw-Hill Construction Information Group, publishers of Sweet’s,
awarded Draper first place in the “Best in Sweet’s—Most
Outstanding Marketplace Program (Print and Electronic)” category
of their third annual Sweet’s Marketplace Awards. Draper had
received an honorable mention in 2001 (see D&WC, February 2002,
page 14).
An independent panel of architects and specifiers chose Draper over
more than 1,600 manufacturers. “This is special because it is
Sweet’s premier award,” according to Penny Sitler, Draper's
advertising manager, “and Sweet’s is the key vehicle for
reaching the contract market.”
Draper manufactures projection screens, lifts and mounts for projectors
and plasma displays, window shades and gymnasium equipment.
ONLEY MAKE BELIEVE EXPANDS LINE, LAUNCHES
WEB SITE
Gerard Onley, designer for and proprietor of Onley Make Believe Decorative
Pillows and Home Accents (OMB), San Francisco, CA, has announced an
expanded product line and the debut of the company’s Web site
(www.onleymakebelieve.com).
The announcement marks a significant change for OMB, which had operated
for the past five years as a small at-home business with product information
and customer orders delivered via a mail-order catalog. The Web site,
featuring three galleries of designs and Onley’s recently expanded
30-piece collection of furnishings, will now be a valuable and accessible
resource for customers and interior design professionals.
Visitors to the site will find a full list of OMB products and design
specifications. The galleries feature detailed pop-up windows of each
design, allowing customers to see the workmanship and envision how
the selection(s) may work in a particular setting.
“Onley Make Believe represents an exclusive and unique collection
of custom, hand-crafted home furnishings for decorative residential
and office environments. The new opportunities provided by an Internet
presence will be beneficial for OMB and its customers, and I believe
the new OMB site will quickly become a useful destination for interior
design professionals,” Onley said. |
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