Farnham, Quebec, Canada—Having established itself as a stand-alone company, Domco has elected to forgo exhibiting at the 16th annual Surfaces trade show in January in order to focus its resources on a national distributor conference and regional retail meetings planned in conjunction with its wholesalers. Stephan Guindon, Domco’s vice president of sales and marketing, noted Surfaces has always been “an excellent venue, and 2004 was no exception. Response from our retail customers was very positive and, thanks to their support, we have had a very good year by exceeding our sales goals across the board.

“Now,” he continued, “we want to maintain that momentum going into 2005 and this strategy allows us and our customers to get an early jump on next year’s selling season.” Guindon said the company took a while to come to this conclusion. “Prior to finalizing a decision, we collected feedback from customers on the value of holding meetings in December versus participating in Surfaces. The general consensus was that a December distributor event, followed by retail meetings would meet both Domco’s and our customers’ objectives. “It all comes down to getting the best value for the buck,” he explained. “We achieved what we needed to do in 2004 and for 2005 we need to take a different approach.”

Last year, it was announced that Domco would be run as a separate sales and marketing entity from its parent firm, Tarkett which, at the same time, was embarking on its own global branding strategy. “At Surfaces ’04,” he said, “we debuted as an independent brand with a new logo, a new marketing strategy and an aggressive plan to give our customers a range of highly styled products at price points that would meet their sales and profit needs. “We accomplished what we set out to do,” Guindon continued, “as people know we are a stand-alone company, so there is no longer a need to promote it. Now, we need to take it to another level and focus on our distributors in a more intimate, one-on-one setting.”

By skipping Surfaces, he said it gives Domco the ability to officially launch products and programs almost two months ahead of when companies normally do their introductions. “By introducing our products and programs in December, rather than in late January, our retail customers can finalize their business plans and get an early start on the 2005 sellion season.” Domco has scheduled a two-day meeting with its distributor network at its headquarters here for this month. At this time, it will announce its strategies for the year, including additions to its popular Influence and Elite lines, a new display system and a re-designed Web site.

In addition, Domco will establish a distributor council whose objective will be to work closely with mill executives to ensure the company provides its dealers with the sales and marketing tools needed to successfully promote the Domco brand. Tarkett Still Exhibiting While Domco has elected to not exhibit at thw up-coming Surfaces show, Tarkett will have a major presence at the market, though it will only focus on the Tarkett branding strategy. “Being part of Tarkett’s exhibit,” Guindon said, “would go against what we are trying to achieve. We’ve never tried to hide that we are a part of Tarkett. But our mission is to run as a stand-alone company. So incorporating ourselves in the Tarkett exhibit space would be taking a number of steps backwards for both of us in what we are trying to accomplish in terms of creating individualized branding strategies.” He did note, in terms of what the parent company is trying to achieve, “It’s important for Tarkett to be at Surfaces as it continues to promote its worldwide branding strategy.” For more information on Domco’s plans and programs for 2005, contact your local distributor. —Matthew Spieler