By Louis Iannaco
While the flooring industry’s overall commitment to being environmentally friendly was clearly evident once again at Surfaces 2008, it was the carpet mills and their fiber suppliers who took the lead in this area.

From the green techniques they utilize to produce their carpets to a variety of product features and benefits borne from new technologies, carpet and fiber companies strutted their stuff on the show floor.

Companies like Beaulieu of America had a story to tell featuring Bliss, its new female-focused consumer-friendly brand, as well as Healthy Home, a Bliss carpet designed to be “the safe and healthy alternative” to other soft floor coverings. Designs from Healthy Home include Clean Living (45 oz.) and Fresh Air (60 oz.), two sister style contemporary frieze products, along with Live Free (45 oz.) and Breathe Easy (60 oz.), a pair of texture carpets. Natural Comfort and Ultimate Home are two other collections featuring several new styles.

Bliss by Beaulieu has been carefully created to focus on the female consumer, noted Patricia Flavin, senior vice president of marketing, taking her interests to heart and communicating in the same tone of voice, while using images that inspire and inform in a language and style, that speaks directly to her.

Beaulieu calls this The Bliss Experience, a simplified shopping experience where selecting a new floor for an end user is as easy as one, two and you’re done. Along with all the information needed to make an educated purchase, Bliss features new displays, graphics, a large color wall and small/large take-home swatches.

One of Healthy Home’s features, Silver Release, is an antimicrobial technology that uses silver and copper ions— elements found in nature—that have been proven effective in reducing bacteria, and inhibiting the growth of mold, mildew and fungus.

“Our star of the show has been Healthy Home, a new technology built into the fiber of the carpet,” she said. “If you spill milk on the floor and forget about it, this technology will take care of that. And, it’s all natural, so it won’t hurt animals or harm humans. In our research groups we have found that women absolutely love this product.

“We talk about the environment in general, and that’s really important,” she explained. “But for women, our studies came back that while she wanted to be recognized as a responsible citizen, she wasn’t that excited about walking on recycled garbage in her home. That didn’t appeal to her. The feedback was, ‘Tell me about that, but put a bow on it.’ Women want aesthetics; they want beauty. This ‘green’ Silver Release, our Healthy Home, is their indoor environment. That’s important to them.”

Another focus for carpet mills in recent years has been to offer the most new patterns, textures and colors as technologically possible to combat the growing market share going to hard surfaces like wood, laminate and ceramic tile. And Surfaces served as a showcase for just that, with new patterns, textures and colors on display.

In the Dixie Home booth, president Paul Comiskey raved about the reaction several of the mill’s new styles received. “We’ve introduced a lot of products at a time when many companies are pulling back. We are investing in equipment and new product lines. People coming to the show may not have seen many aggressive introductions from other mills, but they saw many from us.”

In addition to redoing all of its racks—all now are of the same height and wood grain— Dixie Home introduced many patterned products. From abstract contemporary patterns to small-scale tailored looks, Dixie offered Surfaces attendees a selection of new products designed to complement a broad range of current interior design styles.

Texture and pattern in mid-to-high-contrast tonal colorations appeared throughout the new product offerings. A grand frieze with barber-pole yarn accents, Nevis exudes energy and visual interest, he noted. Another frieze, Marquette, debuted. In cut and loop styles, large-scale contemporary patterns Artessa, Pedemonte and Tamarisk were added, joining traditional looks Caymus and Azure. The Natural Carpet Co. debuted its Roger Thomas Collection at the show. The Hand-Knotted Tibetan Collection includes the specialized weavings Natural Carpet is known for.

“Many people are asking us about the green, environmentally correct products,” said Norman Marks, president of Natural Carpet. “They are certainly now more welcome than ever. I think there is a warm, inviting, organic feeling in our booth that tends to draw people to us, even if they are not specifically looking for this type of product.”

According to Tony Prespitino, vice president of sales and marketing, Gulistan made two major changes with its Invistaconstructed products. “We changed the luster level of the yarn. Polyesters in the market place today are either bright and shiny or dull and chalky. We did a mid-lustre level. The second thing we changed is denier size, from 18, 19 to a nine. Minimum weight is 40 ounces.” These products are featured in the mill’s new American Lifestyles collection.

Moving to a new location on the show floor didn’t seem to phase Stanton Carpet Corp. too much, as it enjoyed a productive market. “The booth is larger and features a different layout than our previous one,” said Jonathan Cohen, executive vice president for Stanton. “It’s actually working out a lot better for us.”

Stanton had many new products on display, including several from Royal Dutch. The Kingston Collection is a 13-foot x 2-inch width, 100% Royaltron polypropylene product. This collection continues to re-invent itself with a more modern flair with the addition of Matrix, Cohen noted, featuring a striated square design with multiple colors in the squares. “Sophisticated combinations of greens, browns, blues, reds, yellows and rich earth colors define this new-edge style.”