Aside from Stainmaster the most recognized brand name by consumers for carpet is Mohawk. The little Indian logo was being marketed and advertised on TV when I was a kid, many years ago. The Karastan brand name has been synonymous with high quality carpet for decades thanks to Walter Guinan who built the brand and the product into a quality icon. Generations of consumers have purchased both brand names because someone in their family had this carpet. The carpet industry as a whole has never been at the forefront of marketing but Mohawk has been unique in this respect keeping a presence before the consumer.
This is a company that just over a decade ago was near the brink of extinction with volume less than $300 million dollars. Today they are the largest floor covering manufacturer in existence with sales near $8 billion dollars- that is an extraordinary accomplishment. If your business grew this big and fast you’d experience some of the growing pains Mohawk has, but the pains of growth have not prevented them from being on the cutting edge of technology, environmental stewardship, assimilation of various flooring product categories and keeping up with the ever changing demands of the marketplace. Not an easy task for anyone in business.
One of the accolades I have to bestow is on Mohawks commercial tech services group largely populated by the Gentry brothers. These guys have been in the industry all their lives, they are extremely knowledgeable about product and installation and they are some of the finest gentlemen the carpet industry has. I have had the occasion to work with them many times and if there’s a situation that requires working out a solution or finding an answer to a problem, they will put forth whatever effort is required. In a recent situation we resolved a problem that could have cost them a small fortune, a major account and a lot of pain for our client – the end user- with a mutual satisfaction. Not once was there an issue of the end user being satisfied.
Mohawk has also just introduced a carpet and hard surface cleaning and maintenance program, essentially providing a service department for their flooring products by and for there retail dealers and the end user. This is a concept I have harped on for years and they are the first to actually implement a viable program headed up by Brian and Trish Warren.
Mohawk also has one of the most highly regarded training centers in the industry, Mohawk University, bringing retail dealers in on a regular basis to educate them about floor covering and how to sell it. The most successful floor covering dealer is the one who is knowledgeable, flexible, and financially astute, knows his product line and his market; Mohawk helps dealers in all these categories. As I speak to retail flooring dealers around the country daily, the ones who are the best at what they do are diversified and savvy, they are the ones who are still successful in business. Business for them is still good and, for the most part, up in a tough market. Mohawk has helped many flooring dealers like this, if they help you and your business is successful so will theirs be.
I have always had the pleasure of having an open relationship with Mohawk, one where we could sit down and talk about issues pertinent to the industry and business. Since I’m not exactly the person any manufacturer wants to see walking through their door because it often means trouble, management at Mohawk has often been different. They’ve actually asked how are we doing and how can we do better. No manufacturer in the industry is perfect and it’s more challenging for the biggest guy on the block when their growing like a weed but Mohawk is a company that will continue to succeed because they have a heritage and history of doing so.
Author: Lewis G. Migliore
LGM and Associates – The Floorcovering Experts