NEW YORK, New York — Covington Fabrics & Design LLC has made several improvements including the doubling of its corporate office and adding several new hires to further its domestic and export business.

It has opened a bonded warehouse with in-stock product in Roosendaal, Holland to further penetrate the EU, Africa and the UK markets according to Stuart Schneider, general manager, international sales. While orders will be cut in the States, the warehouse will be run by RSD, a logistics company in Holland. Covington expects to be in its new Seventh Avenue, New York offices also by September.

“The warehouse will enable Covington to go forward, get bigger in export and remove all obstacles in the customers’ path,” said Schneider, a 20 year export veteran with previous stints with Italian mills Enzo Angiouni and Prosetex based in Italy.  Amagansett by Covington

The warehouse, located between Antwerp and Rotterdam will be stocked with Covington fabrics and will go live in September. All shipments will be duty paid and landed in Europe, giving the customer every advantage, Schneider said. “Covington has always been an important player in export. Our name is well recognized and there is a growing interest in U.S. made goods. Nearly all Covington goods are either made or finished in the USA,” he said.

At the same time, Schneider pointed out his hiring of new agents in the UK like MB Textiles (Mark Beacroft) and Joerg Jansen and his wife who will handle Western Europe and German speaking areas. “German buyers especially want U.S. made products,” Schneider said. In addition, Stephen Boyer is now representing Covington in South Africa. “This is all part of our company’s positive attitude about building the export business.” With the new warehouse and agents, Schneider expects to leverage his many international contacts in building the business for Covington.

“We had a tremendous reception to our higher end lines from Europeans, especially all cotton,” Schneider said. “In addition to our excellent product ranges, we’re well capitalized and funded, and the Kahn and Rifkin family ownership is very much behind our success,” he said. “We’re tapping into the fact that customers worldwide have realized that service has a value in the face of rising foreign currency cost, especially in China along with increased material costs for all suppliers. This is a perfect time for a converter like us to grow in this business,” he added. “We are not limited in terms of product. We can do just about anything the customer wants.”

“Covington is adding more print lines to its product mix as more European customers are asking for more prints, especially at MoOD,” said Tom Bruno, vice president, sales. “Our prints are strong and we definitely feel they are coming back. It’s not the traditional but more the transitional with fun and fresh looks that are selling with brighter colors. Amagansett, Windsor and Savannah are prints in our new line that took right off!” Stuart Schneider

“On the woven side Covington has  introduced a 46 sku program ‘Brady,’ ‘Bailey,’ and ‘Barton’ in cotton/polyester in a brand new construction that has had a fantastic response,” Bruno said, including   “a large jacquard group called the ‘International Collection’ with two lead patterns and three coordinates that could serve the Southwest and Contemporary U.S. markets. We have many more jacquard designs this season as well as embroideries. ‘Glynn Linen’ continues to be the premier linen in the market,” he said; “and this season we added a new stripe to Glynn Linen called ‘Gilson.’ We just updated Jefferson Linen with 30 new colors and Pebbletex with 30 new colors both foundation cloths for the Covington line.”  

In addition to what Schneider has done with his export sales team, Bruno points out that Covington Contract is now on the map with 20 U.S. based agents under the leadership of Craig Shirk, contract sales manager. All of the new hires including Schneider and Shirk have been made in the past year. Both men report to Bruno.   F&FI