London – In the race to deliver goods more quickly, Desso Carpets featured at Decorex its new A la Carte program, which makes available custom made carpets in four weeks. Using Nedgraphics software and state-of-the-art CAD electronic jacquard control systems, the A la Carte program can produce 60 different rug designs in 1000 colorways.

''What we're saying to people is you can have a new carpet in a reasonable amount of time,'' said Keith Hall, Desso national sales manager. ''This concept saves time on preparatory processes, including the 3 to 4 days it can take to switch the bobbins, spin the yarn, dye, etc.'' Hall also said that this new technology has allowed Desso to scrap traditional carpet manufacturing methods which rely on manual changover and punch card jacquard methods, in favor of automated systems which remove several steps in the yarn production and dyeing processes.

The looms are pre-loaded with yarns, using two color banks with eight colors in each. ''The loom is ready to go as soon as it receives instructions from a disk,'' Hall said.

Desso sells carpets at 2.5 meter widths in a minimum quantity of 100 square meters. The high-end products range from $32-$49 per square meter. Buyers are generally interior designers and architects. Subsequently, many of the rugs end up in hotels and cruise ships. ''We have 40 percent of the cruise ship market,'' said Hall.

Desso also makes tufted and wilton carpets, carpet tiles and, according to Hall, almost ''every type of soft floor covering.'' The company distributes worldwide.

Desso, which is 54 years old, was recently acquired by the Armstrong group. Under Armstrong's wing, the U.K. division, which has 40 employees presently, plans to expand in the U.K. and to double its turnover in three years. F&FI