ROSLYN, N.Y.—The number 13 may be considered a jinx, but it proved to be a lucky one for
Mohawk Industries as the company was named the Best Overall Manufacturer in the 13th Award of Excellence competition. This was the second time in the competition’s history Mohawk took top honors, having initially won in 2005. The mill’s
Dal-Tile division was also named Best Tile Manufacturer for the 11th straight year.
These awards, along with 10 other honors, were presented at a gala evening reception and dinner here.
In accepting the coveted Best Overall award, David Duncan, vice president of marketing, said, “It is quite the honor being recognized the 2009 Award of Excellence winner by the retailers in the flooring industry. Our entire management team at Mohawk strives to provide industry leading products, brands, customer service, innovation, marketing support and training to our retail partners, so we are pleased to receive their vote of confidence and support. Thank you.”
Sponsored by Floor Covering News and the
World Floor Covering Association (
WFCA), the Award of Excellence is a way for manufacturers’ customers— retailers, distributors, designers, installers, specifiers, etc.—to honor the companies they feel consistently provide the best service, professionalism of sales force, management responsiveness, value, design, B2B, handling of claims and ease of doing business. In other words, those manufacturers they feel help them the best in running successful, profitable business operations, whether it be a retail operation, distributorship, design center or installation workroom.
To receive the Best Overall honor, readers of
FCNews, members of the WFCA as well as any other industry personnel visiting trade shows such as Surfaces and not employed by a manufacturer voted between October and the end of February for the companies they felt best met the previously mentioned criteria in the six individual floor covering categories— carpet, area rugs, resilient, hardwood, ceramic and laminate—as well as the top overall mill.
“WFCA is committed to enhancing quality in our industry, and this competition is designed to recognize and reward quality,” said
Chris Davis, the organization’s president and CEO, during the awards ceremony. “What makes this award so special is that it comes directly from your customers. They are the ones who voted.” Because of this, he encouraged the winning companies to share the award with their employees and sales force. “Let them know the hard work they are doing is recognized by their customers.”
While the economy is slowing sales down dramatically, it is apparently giving people the urge to speak their minds more, as more votes were cast this year than any other, coming in a little under 6,000.
This was the third year that individual category winners were selected in two groups based on their volume. This was to put companies on a more even playing field based on the fact the industry has become polarized in many ways. This is especially true at the manufacturing level where some companies’ sales in certain categories are so huge they do in a week what it takes others to do in a year.
Rather than setting some arbitrary figure, FCNews and WFCA used common sense to determine the groupings. The idea was to give every company the same chance to walk away with an award.
Once again, the format proved to be a success in a number of ways. In addition to the record number of votes,
Royalty Carpet Mills was represented on the winner’s podium for the first time in the competition’s history, while others, such as
Formica and
Interceramic returned after a significant absence.
In Formica’s case, the company was voted Best Laminate Manufacturer in 1998 and 1999 and even earned the runner-up spot as Best Overall in 1998. Interceramic was voted Best Tile Manufacturer in the competition’s initial year, and runner-up the following year.
One other company,
Milliken, finally pushed its way to the top of the area rug category after coming in as the runner-up four times, the last being in 2004.
And the winners are…A total of 12 Awards of Excellence were handed out during the awards dinner. The winners for 2008 were:
• Best Overall: Mohawk Industries
• Carpet, Group A:
Shaw Industries; Group B: Royalty Carpet Mills
• Resilient, Group A:
Mannington Mills; Group B:
Johnsonite• Laminate, Group A: Armstrong; Group B: Formica
• Ceramic, Group A: Dal-Tile; Group B: Interceramic
• Hardwood, Group A: Anderson; Group B: Mirage Prefinished Hardwood Flooring
• Area Rugs: Milliken
Among the individual winners, Mirage has won the Group B Wood category every year since the new format was adopted.
“We are honored that retailers consider Mirage to be an outstanding partner that helps them reach their goals through quality business relations,” said Luc Robitaille, vice president of marketing at Boa- Franc, manufacturer of the Mirage brand. “Our first place once again testifies to our constant commitment to being the best manufacturer of prefinished hardwood flooring in the world.”
