Barth Getto

Detroit—For over three years, executives at World of Floors have been developing and refining a national franchise concept they are now ready to aggressively role out.

With 23 locations in Michigan, Indiana and North Carolina, the company has hired industry veteran Barth Getto as COO and national director of franchising to take it to the “next level,” said Emil Pedick, president.

Getto, who has 23 years of industry experience, was most recently president of Group Builders. Prior to that, he was vice president of member relations for CCA Global Partners, where he helped add 630 locations to the company’s various buying group divisions, such as Carpet One and Flooring America.

World of Floors was born in 1997 by former managers of New York Carpet World (NYCW), including William Whitford, who was president of the chain and a key member in developing its infrastructure for more than 35 years. Along with Whitford, Pedick and now Getto, other members of World’s management team include James Franey, secretary/treasurer, and Anthony MacDonald, CFO.

Pedick said up to now, the company has licensed its name to the existing members, many of them former NYCW stores, in order to properly develop a franchise program which offers dealers something different and unique.

“That’s where Getto comes in,” he said during an exclusive conference call with FCNews. “His experience and reputation in the industry combined with the aggressive advertising and merchandising qualities NYCW members have will fuel our national expansion.

“His integrity and commitment to the industry will also help our current franchisees increase their bottom line,” Pedick added.

Merchandising systems and the like are also going to be offered to members, but “if she doesn’t know about you and your store, then it doesn’t matter if you have the best selling system in the world,” he said.

Pedick mentioned the customer as “she” and both Getto and the rest of the management team understand this is the audience World of Floors needs to target in everything it does.

“Anybody in the industry doing research is seeing the female is responsible for upwards of 85% of the sales,” Getto explained. “Yet, they are just now getting wise to it and finally starting to make changes.”

He said the objective is to make the retail store “inviting. You want to give the impression you are inviting them into your home, not the garage. Just look at other successful national retailers and how what they have done inside their stores.”

With an eye toward the proper flooring customer and a management team that knows and understands what it takes to operate a successful retail chain, World of Floors has embarked on an aggressive growth strategy. The company plans on added 180 new stores within the next three years, bringing it to over 200 locations.

“We understand the importance of such things as advertising and other effective methods to drive business and will teach these to members,” Pedick said. “We also know how to create ads which drive the products that are important to our vendors.

“So, it’s a win-win-win type of situation,” he continued. “We can help dealers with more traffic and help our vendors by selling the products that are important.”

World of Floors already has working agreements with the major flooring mills and is working on programs for wall coverings, accessories and computer software. “As the number of members grow,” Getto said, “we will be adding services and offerings because their will be more diverse needs.”

For more information, call Getto at 603/674-1260.
—Matthew Spieler