MIAMI, Florida—Coulisse has produced a 30 percent sales gain in 2016 according to Jop Vos, Managing Director of the North American branch of the Enter, Netherlands based supplier of window treatments. “Chile and Colombia are also growing strong, but Brazil has clearly a challenging market environment. In some of the countries in South America the market is going down, but we manage to increase” Vos explains, “with more to come in 2017.” Coulisse, is a $100 million plus window coverings system supplier, is capitalizing on the trend towards roller shades with a major expansion in the USA and South American markets. The company offers more than 750 sku’s in its roller shade collection and most of that is also available in the USA collection. Coulisse says it refreshes, and replaces each year about 30 percent of its fabric designs. Unique Wholesale Distributors Inc., in Fort Lauderdale, FL, expects further growth, especially with the introduction of four of the new USA fabric and screen collection and the launch of the Roller Absolute 2.0 hardware system. “The new Absolute 2.0 hardware is an amazing new roller system that will compete in each market segment, both in residential and commercial applications.” “Some of the largest retailers in the country have committed to the system,” Vos continues. Unique will spearhead the launch of four new roller shade fabric books supplied by Coulisse.  Unique is a major wholesaler and fabricator of roller shades to the window coverings retailers in the USA with thousands accounts nationwide. (See Additional Story p.1) Coulisse also expects to seal a deal with a major homegoods retail chain in the USA, guaranteeing further growth in the American market, Vos says. At the same time, Coulisse is introducing six of its own in house designed standard roller shade mechanisms made of glass fiber reinforced POM with six new metal finishes for the residential and commercial markets in the USA. Previously, Coulisse outsourced the design and production of its roller shade mechanisms. Production is still outsourced but the design is in house by Coulisse, Vos emphasizes. The new mechanisms offer four different sizes; small, medium and heavy-duty large sizes for the commercial markets. The fourth size is XS (extra small) first introduced in Europe and now is expected to take hold in the American market because of the standard small windows in the USA, 36x60 inches. “The extra small size roller shades from Coulisse are the right size for many applications in the USA and should really take off sales wise,” Vos says. Coulisse participates in the International Window Coverings Show in Charlotte, previously in Las Vegas. As well as the Interior Design Show (IDS) in Toronto, CA for the first time this year. After four years in the US market, Coulisse is getting the right traction in the market and opened its brand new office on Brickell Key under the direction of Vos, last year. Miami is the hub for Coulisse’s North and South American business. Vos, who joined Coulisse in 2006 covering the Eastern European market, relocated from his native Netherlands to the USA in 2012. He is now the Managing Director of Coulisse America based in new offices on Brickell Key where he covers the USA and an increasingly important South American market. He reports to the owners based in Enter, The Netherlands, about an hour from Amsterdam. There, Coulisse has a 170,000 square foot warehouse and design center, which supplies 7,000 sku’s to the world market. Coulisse says it has a motor solution for each of its systems which include Roller Shades, Roman Shades, Venetian Blinds, Panel Tracks and HoneyCell’s. Some of the most successful fabrics are made of 100 percent Trevira®CS fabrics as well as natural roller shades of jute, paper and linen. Coulisse also supplies blackout and light filtering shades. The company in its expanding export effort now has sales offices in Singapore, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Taipei, Warsaw Poland and Moscow.