Dalton—Mohawk Industries has announced it will hold more than 40 regional meetings across the United States and Canada between December and February instead of exhibiting at Surfaces ’04. In June, the industry’s largest flooring company announced it was not going to attend the upcoming Surfaces market in Las Vegas in favor of expanding its regional show concept (FCNews, June 6/19).

The company gave the following reason behind this strategy: “Regional meetings would make travel easier for dealers, allow Mohawk to spend more one-on-one time with its customers and let retailers concentrate more on individual business opportunities.” “We’re not against Surfaces,” said Ed Williams, Mohawk’s senior vice president of marketing. “In fact, we think it is a great show. But, we feel in order to provide our dealers with the exceptional quality regional events they have asked for, we need to direct our resources to this.”

While dates and their respective facilities for the upcoming regional meetings have not been finalized, Mohawk has announced the cities in which its “Covering New Ground—National Product Tour 2004” will be held. Stops include every type of city, from Baraboo, Wis., and Council Bluff, Iowa, to Chicago and Los Angeles and all points in between. All in all, the schedule is designed to accommodate dealers in each Mohawk distribution region, and they will be held in facilities dealers are used to visiting for these types of events.

Though the meetings will carry a common theme they will be structured according to city and size of the event. Larger events, such as the one the mill normally holds in Dallas, which attracts approximately 1,500 people, could run more than one day in order make sure everyone’s needs are meet. These events will not only have a showroom full of products, but many of the support services Mohawk has for dealers, such as marketing programs, credit cards/financing, and training through its Mohawk University division. “The smaller venues, which are expected to attract up to 100 dealers, will be a condensed version of the bigger ones,” Williams explain ed. “They will be more product focused, but they’ll have information and materials about everything else we do for retailers. They just might not have a total physical presence.”

He cautioned that even though the larger events will have a convention-like feel, “they will not be as broad based as our Floorscapes and ColorCenter conventions.” These two events, along with its annual Karastan dealer meeting will still take place. In addition to being able to have the full attention of the attendees, Williams said these meetings will “give us the ability to bring more regional managers and sales reps to work with their customers. Basically, we have more people to take care of the dealers and concentrate on specific issues and challenges. “This is critical,” he concluded.

“We’re creating an opportunity for retailers to sit down with the Mohawk personnel who have a vested interest in their success and have the time to plan things for the coming year that will make a difference in that store’s progress. For some lines, like hardwood and ceramic tile, you have to work with stores on a regional—if not local—basis, and that is the reason we chose to make a change in our approach.” For more information about when the Covering New Ground tour will come to your area, call 877/275-6645.