Dalton—Citing a desire by its dealer network to have more regional meetings, Mohawk Industries has opted not to attend Surfaces 2004 in favor of more than doubling its company sponsored events. “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’ve asked for, we need to direct our resources to this.” He noted between December and February Mohawk has been holding regional product launch meetings in more than a dozen locations across the country and they have become “very popular. The one we do in Dallas attracted over 1,500 people last year.”

In addition to these events, Mohawk also hosts various conventions for its national dealer networks, specifically Floorscapes, ColorCenter and Karastan retailers. And, beyond the company sponsored events, Mohawk participates in just about every buying group convention. “Every year our events—from the product previews to the dealer conventions,” Williams explained, “have steadily grown and, in turn, the retailers have been requesting we do more of them because of the added benefits and value they get from them. “They tell us they like the reduced travel expenses for localized events,” he continued, “and they overwhelmingly prefer the specialized, personal attention they get at them.” Mohawk also likes the individual attention it can give to dealers. “It goes beyond just product launches,” Williams said. “These shows allow us to focus on other things we do for our customers, such as advertising and marketing, promotions, educational training from selling to installing, etc. We get their full attention and they get ours so we can spend more quality time with each other.

“The regional shows,” he added, “also gives 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, Mohawk states, is something that cannot be done at Surfaces due to its tremendous size. “The number of dealers attending Surfaces has become so large it is impossible to effectively communicate with them in such a short period of time,” Williams said. Unlike in 1996 when Mohawk announced it would not attend Surfaces—it quickly came back following Shaw Industries’ move into retail—this time the decision has nothing to do with money, according to Williams. “This has nothing to do with cost,” he explained. “In fact, it is going to cost us more to do the regional shows from both a logistics and monetary aspect. Actually, it would be easier to just go to Surfaces, but realistically we can not do both so we must follow what our dealers have been asking us to do—put on more regional shows.

“We regularly hold town hall style meetings,” Williams added, “to ask dealers what they think of our efforts and what they would like to see us doing more. This is a strategy to enhance our service to our customers based solely on their requests.” While Mohawk is pulling out the company’s Daltile/American Olean division may still participate. “That decision is up to the executives there,” Williams explained, “because Daltile is run independently of Mohawk.” Matt Kahny, Daltile’s vice president of marketing, confirmed the business unit has not come to a decision as of press time. “We approach Surfaces and all our marketing initiatives independently of Mohawk. Our decision will be based on nothing related to Mohawk’s decision but, instead, on our own marketing priorities.”

He said no decision has been made because it has yet to formulate its plans for 2004. “Usually, once we get the Surfaces prospectus is when we traditionally start evaluating everything for the next year. We’ve been to Surfaces for the last four years and each year we go through the same process. We start fresh each year.” Kahny noted a decision by Daltile will be made “in a few weeks” as to whether it will once again show at Surfaces. While Mohawk’s move may seem like a blow to Surfaces considering its booth was clearly one of the five largest at the event, officials for Hanley-Wood, the show’s owner, don’t think it spells the end to what is the industry’s largest trade event. “Any time a large client is not able to participate in an event, it is a concern,” said Michelle Troop, Surfaces’ senior show director. “Mohawk has been a good partner of Surfaces for many years and we understand and respect that its way of doing business has changed.”

She said Hanley-Wood and Mohawk officials had had conversations “about this for months to see what we can do to accommodate. But its business model has it going in a different direction.” As of press time, Troop said no other mills have expressed their desire not to return to Surfaces next year. “Our conversations with mills have been that Surfaces is a successful show. In fact, we just sent out the prospectus for booths and the contracts have been coming back faster than ever, with many companies wanted to increase their booth spaces. So, in one way, this allows us to accommodate their requests. “Surfaces has continued to grow and showcase the diversification of products that now make up the flooring industry,” she continued. “We are always looking at opportunities to bring in new and exciting things—companies, products, services—because that’s what Surfaces is all about. It is the one place where dealers can come to see the largest array of potential suppliers who are dedicated to helping their businesses grow and keep up with the ever-changing consumer demand, as well as give them the chance to see the latest products and programs.”

As far as the effect on attendance, Troop said, “There is no doubt it will be a good show and we will see lots of dealers, In fact, we are confident dealers from across the country will continue to support Surfaces through their attendance.” With Mohawk now officially out, the question is will its biggest competitor, Shaw, follow suit, especially since it did withdraw from participating in Surfaces from 1996 to 1998 and, like Mohawk, it holds a series of regional product meetings starting in December, as well as hosting company sponsored conventions for its aligned dealer network. “We’ve been talking about Surfaces for a couple of weeks,” said Julius Shaw, executive vice president of Shaw, “but have not made a final decision. We’ll know in a couple of weeks.” He cited Shaw’s ever increasing amount of regional meetings, buying group conventions and other similar events, “and you start to get conventioned to death. “Also,” Shaw added, “these regional events are extremely well received, especially our in-house ones because we get to spend more one-on-one time with our customers as opposed to Surfaces.”

Shaw does feel that Surfaces holds a benefit, “but it is hard to quantify because we don’t do enough roll business to justify the expense. However, there are many intangible benefits such as the ability for middle and upper management to meet with customers and to showcase new products and programs in one venue at one time. But, it is hard to see if you get your dollar’s worth.” Even last year, when Shaw scaled back its carpet products and devoted approximately 40% of its booth space to hard surface goods “to let dealers know this is an important direction for the company and that we are committed to this area, it still ended up costing as much as previous years. It’s mostly due to the amount of people we need to bring in order to properly service the amount of customers. It’s a very expensive proposition.”

Tom Davis, president and CEO of Mannington Mills, feels “it is truly disappointing that one of the top industry leaders has opted to not support this key industry function. I am afraid its lack of participation will not go unnoticed, and will undermine the future of not only Surfaces, but of the industry’s retailers as well. The education and interaction opportunities provided at Surfaces cannot be successfully replaced with one-dimensional regional conventions by a handful of large suppliers. “Flooring retailers deserve a one-stop, industry-wide annual convention to ensure they maintain the knowledge, products and tools to be successful against the other consumer options we compete with every day,” he continued. “Over the past several years, we feel that Surfaces has provided the best forum for this, when compared to all the other options that have been tried before.” Surfaces ’04 will take place Jan. 28 to 30 at the Sands Expo & Convention center in Las Vegas. For more information on next year’s show, visit www.SurfacesExpo.com.