When Mohawk commissioned Floor Covering News to publish this exclusive issue, I was concerned. How could we possibly tell the Mohawk story in just 24 pages? Well, we couldn’t. That’s why the issue you are holding in your hands was expanded to 36 pages. And we could easily have done more.

It wasn’t until I was sifting through the many articles that I truly understood the breadth and scope of Mohawk Industries. Two stories on page 1 are particularly noteworthy. In an industry with so few powerful consumer brands, Mohawk has been earning consumers’ trust for nearly 130 years. By leveraging the power of the Mohawk brand, retailers can assure customers will have a better shopping experience because the brand has proven to deliver the qualities they expect. That is why Mohawk puts a premium on giving retailers the tools to leverage that brand—tools that include advertising, research, credit services, merchandising and, of course, product.

On pages 3 and 12 you will discover a pair of subtle yet important ways Mohawk is helping the retailer: by focusing on shortening the amount of time between flooring purchases, and by giving dealers the tools to maintain relationships with consumers between those purchases. Research shows today’s consumer makes a flooring purchase about every seven years. Tom Lape, president, Mohawk Residential, told me there are two ways of moving up the lifecycle of flooring purchases: by performance or style. The former is obviously not advisable, so Mohawk is committed to exciting the consumer with next-generation styling and design. The idea is to have the consumer replace her existing product simply because she wants the latest and greatest looks. That will bring her back more frequently.

But the relationship between consumer and retailer does not have to be limited to flooring purchases. What if instead of a customer visiting a retail store every seven years, she came in every seven weeks? That’s the key principle behind Mohawk’s FloorCare Essentials household cleaner program, which offers a complete floor cleaning system with products for carpet, hardwood, laminates, vinyl and tile. It gives retailers a real tool for building customer loyalty and provides the perfect avenue for that continuous contact.

The aforementioned Lape, who talks about the state of business on page 8, is another key driver of the company’s success. There are a handful of people in this industry where you can walk into a room and emerge a smarter human being just by listening, and Lape is one of those people.

Another driving force behind Mohawk’s success is its array of green initiatives. Whether it is the recently introduced Greenworks program, its bio-based SmartStrand fiber that reduces dependence on fossil fuel, its position as the largest recycler of plastic bottles in the country or its new recycling center that it can process nylon 6 waste material as well as the other major types of synthetic carpet fiber, you’d be hard pressed to find another company doing as much to protect the environment. What does that mean for retailers? As the green movement continues to build up steam at the consumer level, those companies with a true green story will be positioned to win.

I could go on and on, and I haven’t even touched on hard surface, which begins on page 24. After reading the Brian Carson interview, the article on capital investments on this side of the business and the specific product sections, it is obvious Mohawk is a whole lot more than the carpet manufacturer of yesterday.

Enjoy this issue and, as always, I welcome your thoughts.