Cambridge Weavers Shakes Up Staid Axminster Business
March 8, 2004
HANOVER, Germany-Cambridge Weavers, a new division of Oriental Weavers Group, is gearing up to attain a $250 million share of the Axminster woven hospitality business within the next 10 years.
Oriental Weavers owner Mohamed Farid Khamis said he expects to surpass his competition using versatile technology to produce what Khamis calls ''excellent Axminster quality at affordable prices.''
Despite being new to the Axminster business, Cambridge has already racked up an A-list clientele that includes Meridien, Hyatt and Ritz Carlton.
The aggressive and innovative Khamis said he is banking on Cambridge's ''innovative Axminster production system, which emphasizes speed and quick turnaround of the client's design,'' to catapult his $1.5 billion firm to stardom. This new system can customize widths of any design, which Khamis said is key to overcoming his competitors; tufted products often produce wasted yardage cut from standard-sized rolls.
''We have a just-in-time, custom Axminster program,'' said Karl Mobley, sales director. ''Our Cairo-based looms are loaded with colored yarns and we turn production around in four weeks.''
''We can ship a carpet from Cairo in two weeks,'' Mobley said. ''Oriental Weavers ships rugs to America every day. It costs the same to ship carpet coast to coast in America as it does to ship it to America from Cairo. It costs $1,000 to ship a typical order for a hotel project. Our container costs are very competitive to this.''
If a designer wants colors other than what the custom quick ship program offers, he can choose from Cambridge's selection of 360 wool/nylon yarn colors in 80/20 blends. ''The typical Axminster mill doesn't offer the kind of quick service we offer,'' Mobley said.
Normally, Axminster mill designers need as many as four days to complete each design change clients request, but Mobley said Cambridge can execute changes in as few as 24 hours. While Cambridge produces its Axminster in Cairo, Egypt, Mobley and U.S. Technical Manager Nigel Foxall handle sales at a London office.
The pair pitched its two-year-old business to specifiers and designers attending ContractWorld and Domotex here, displaying a tromp l'oeil effect featuring a hotel lobby and guest room swathed in Axminster.
''We started this business from scratch with all new ideas and broke from the traditional approach of most Axminster weavers,'' Mobley said.
Oriental Weavers owner Mohamed Farid Khamis said he expects to surpass his competition using versatile technology to produce what Khamis calls ''excellent Axminster quality at affordable prices.''
Despite being new to the Axminster business, Cambridge has already racked up an A-list clientele that includes Meridien, Hyatt and Ritz Carlton.
The aggressive and innovative Khamis said he is banking on Cambridge's ''innovative Axminster production system, which emphasizes speed and quick turnaround of the client's design,'' to catapult his $1.5 billion firm to stardom. This new system can customize widths of any design, which Khamis said is key to overcoming his competitors; tufted products often produce wasted yardage cut from standard-sized rolls.
''We have a just-in-time, custom Axminster program,'' said Karl Mobley, sales director. ''Our Cairo-based looms are loaded with colored yarns and we turn production around in four weeks.''
''We can ship a carpet from Cairo in two weeks,'' Mobley said. ''Oriental Weavers ships rugs to America every day. It costs the same to ship carpet coast to coast in America as it does to ship it to America from Cairo. It costs $1,000 to ship a typical order for a hotel project. Our container costs are very competitive to this.''
If a designer wants colors other than what the custom quick ship program offers, he can choose from Cambridge's selection of 360 wool/nylon yarn colors in 80/20 blends. ''The typical Axminster mill doesn't offer the kind of quick service we offer,'' Mobley said.
Normally, Axminster mill designers need as many as four days to complete each design change clients request, but Mobley said Cambridge can execute changes in as few as 24 hours. While Cambridge produces its Axminster in Cairo, Egypt, Mobley and U.S. Technical Manager Nigel Foxall handle sales at a London office.
The pair pitched its two-year-old business to specifiers and designers attending ContractWorld and Domotex here, displaying a tromp l'oeil effect featuring a hotel lobby and guest room swathed in Axminster.
''We started this business from scratch with all new ideas and broke from the traditional approach of most Axminster weavers,'' Mobley said.
