Glen Raven Overhauls Upholstery Lines With New Division
April 17, 2000
Glen Raven, N.C. - Glen Raven Mills Inc. has launched Glen Raven Decorative Fabric division in order to make a dent in the better upholstery market. The new division falls under the watch of Ralph Allen, product manager of residential and contract Fabrics. Allen is a 20-year veteran of the upholstery business with tours of duty at Milliken and most recently at Johnston Industries. He joined Glen Raven in September 1998.
Allen said that Glen Raven's extensive yarn and dyeing facilities will buttress the residential division. These facilities include a recently opened package dye operation that will offer ''our own unique color palette to the residential upholstery buyer,'' he said.
Allen reports to Harry Gobble, marketing and product development manager. Gobble is credited with successfully managing the Sunbrella brand of outdoor fabric for Glen Raven over the years. He's now helping Allen develop a strong brand and styling statement in residential upholstery fabric.
Gobble said that the strong overlap in styling between indoor and outdoor fabrics today as a big plus.
Glen Raven completed the acquisition of the Dickson Constant Company in Europe in the last two years. Dickson is a publicly held, 120-year-old mill with 3,500 employees working throughout its nine divisions. Today, Dickson is the number one brand for outdoor fabric in Europe, where it caters to the awning and marine fabric market, said Allen Erwin Gant, Jr., principal, president and CEO.
Dickson also produces fabrics for soft-sided trucks in Europe and has a high-tech fabric coating plant in St. Clair, France near Lyon. The Dickson brand will be a part of a two-tier selling strategy with Sunbrella, said Gant.
As part of the Dickson purchase, Glen Raven also acquired the Dickson Elberton Mills upholstery division. This company became the base for Glen Raven's new decorative fabric division. The new division now has a dedicated design team equipped with a CAD system and upgraded jacquard and dobby looms in Elberton, Georgia, said Ralph Allen. The new Glen Raven line has also been styled and priced up from where it was under the former ownership.
''China and Korea have focused on fabrics in lower price points,'' said Allen, ''so what's the point of targeting the lower end?
''What was $3.25 to $5 has been raised to $4.50 to $10 in totally new product lines with a dedicated design team, namely Brenda Swelling Bost and Karen Williams. It has taken us one year to develop yarns and colors internally. Our line features chenille in acrylic and cotton novelty yarns,'' Allen said. ''We had inherited 2,000 SKUs from the previous line. We've already replaced half of the line and dropped the rest.''
The company expects sales of $50 million in middle to upper price points of jacquard wovens and dobbies within ten years. Another part of the makeover is Glen Raven Decorative Fabrics' move into a new, 3,600-foot showroom in High Point, N.C., U.S.A. In addition, Glen Raven residential and contract upholstery lines will have the added benefit of utilizing international sales offices already established to service the Sunbrella customers, Gant said.
''We are looking forward to Decosit in September,'' Allen said. We realize that our customer base will change internationally because we have dramatically changed the residential upholstery line. We've also developed contract fabrics this past year for the contract jobber market in acrylic and PVC. This is geared for wallcovering, panel cloth, and seating for the designer/specifier.
With the new effort in residential upholstery and contract lines, Glen Raven's business breaks down into 40 percent industrial; 30 percent casual and residential; 10 percent automotive and 20 percent apparel, Gant said.
''We've been more innovative with Sunbrella in its use of residential looks for the outdoor market than anyone else,'' said Gobble.
''We expect to continue emphasizing innovative styling with the residential line for the furniture manufacturer,'' said Allen. ''We have a terrific opportunity to grow this business.'' In another unusual development, Glen Raven, launched an e-commerce Website and consumer catalog, featuring products manufactured by its customers like Mitchell Gold and Michael Thomas, Gant said. The third catalog will be introduced this spring and will feature home furnishings fabrics and apparel items as well as furniture for sale to consumers. ''Only better goods will be featured,'' Gant said. ''Anything associated with Sunbrella must be of premium quality because Sunbrella is associated with better apparel and home furnishings. We want to understand what the business is doing, what fabric colors are selling and what influences the consumer.''
Gant's global vision also affects the new decorative fabric division. The new residential fabrics division for the indoor market is expected to become an important addition to Glen Raven, which is well known internationally for its Sunbrella outdoor fabric business. Sunbrella is sold to customers in Shanghai, Indonesia and Hong Kong.
If customers make umbrellas in China, then Sunbrella fabric is shipped to these customers, Gant pointed out. Glen Raven is now operating in 105 countries, in some cases on a joint-venture basis with local partners, he said. Glen Raven supplies a wide range of fabrics to customers worldwide including Nike.
Gant recently returned from Shanghai to inspect a deepwater port in Ningbo where the company may be doing some shipping to China based customers. ''We sell our products worldwide, wherever our customers need them,'' said Gant. ''As a result, we have established offices in 30 cities worldwide and have established a separate airfreight and shipping business with hundreds of customers in many different industries.''
''Wage rates in good manufacturing areas of China are $100 a month. Mexico is not the answer for the U.S.A. China has made labor available for the rest of the world and we can't find enough labor in the U.S.A. For example, the Chinese built a 100-mile road from Ningbo to Shanghai in two years using one million people to do it.'' Gant said he places people first before all other things in his business. ''We've invested heavily in people, technology, marketing, quality and safety. We've installed Oracle data base software. Nobody lost their job at Glen Raven because of technology. As a result, we have introduced new technology to our operations, faster than anybody else.''
''We've virtually eliminated lost time due to accidents. We won't operate any part of our business if our people are not going to be safe.''
Recently, 24 employees lost their homes due to heavy flooding. Glen Raven shipped 17 container loads of household goods to these people. Some lived in the factory for a week while their homes were being restored.
Gant Didn't Balk at Trading His Chickens For Textiles
The American Civil War saw the beginnings of Glen Raven Mills when Allen Gant's great grandfather was looking for work at war's end. ''He first took a plow to the field and realized he was at the wrong end of the mule,'' said Gant. ''Then he went to work in a store and traded one dozen chickens for dress materials. Later, he worked at a little mill in Altamahaw, a forerunner to a denim mill bought by Burlington Industries,'' Gant said.
He worked there as a part owner for eight years and eventually bought the whole mill by 1800. He even applied to the U.S. Postal Service for its own post office. ''He wanted anyone to be able to send a letter to Glen Raven 27217 in the U.S.A. and have the letter get there from any part of the world,'' said Gant.
The origins of the Gant family were in Scotland. His ancestors - the Erwin and Anderson clans - were first noticed in the Baltimore area in the 1700s.
Allen said that Glen Raven's extensive yarn and dyeing facilities will buttress the residential division. These facilities include a recently opened package dye operation that will offer ''our own unique color palette to the residential upholstery buyer,'' he said.
Allen reports to Harry Gobble, marketing and product development manager. Gobble is credited with successfully managing the Sunbrella brand of outdoor fabric for Glen Raven over the years. He's now helping Allen develop a strong brand and styling statement in residential upholstery fabric.
Gobble said that the strong overlap in styling between indoor and outdoor fabrics today as a big plus.
Glen Raven completed the acquisition of the Dickson Constant Company in Europe in the last two years. Dickson is a publicly held, 120-year-old mill with 3,500 employees working throughout its nine divisions. Today, Dickson is the number one brand for outdoor fabric in Europe, where it caters to the awning and marine fabric market, said Allen Erwin Gant, Jr., principal, president and CEO.
Dickson also produces fabrics for soft-sided trucks in Europe and has a high-tech fabric coating plant in St. Clair, France near Lyon. The Dickson brand will be a part of a two-tier selling strategy with Sunbrella, said Gant.
As part of the Dickson purchase, Glen Raven also acquired the Dickson Elberton Mills upholstery division. This company became the base for Glen Raven's new decorative fabric division. The new division now has a dedicated design team equipped with a CAD system and upgraded jacquard and dobby looms in Elberton, Georgia, said Ralph Allen. The new Glen Raven line has also been styled and priced up from where it was under the former ownership.
''China and Korea have focused on fabrics in lower price points,'' said Allen, ''so what's the point of targeting the lower end?
''What was $3.25 to $5 has been raised to $4.50 to $10 in totally new product lines with a dedicated design team, namely Brenda Swelling Bost and Karen Williams. It has taken us one year to develop yarns and colors internally. Our line features chenille in acrylic and cotton novelty yarns,'' Allen said. ''We had inherited 2,000 SKUs from the previous line. We've already replaced half of the line and dropped the rest.''
The company expects sales of $50 million in middle to upper price points of jacquard wovens and dobbies within ten years. Another part of the makeover is Glen Raven Decorative Fabrics' move into a new, 3,600-foot showroom in High Point, N.C., U.S.A. In addition, Glen Raven residential and contract upholstery lines will have the added benefit of utilizing international sales offices already established to service the Sunbrella customers, Gant said.
''We are looking forward to Decosit in September,'' Allen said. We realize that our customer base will change internationally because we have dramatically changed the residential upholstery line. We've also developed contract fabrics this past year for the contract jobber market in acrylic and PVC. This is geared for wallcovering, panel cloth, and seating for the designer/specifier.
With the new effort in residential upholstery and contract lines, Glen Raven's business breaks down into 40 percent industrial; 30 percent casual and residential; 10 percent automotive and 20 percent apparel, Gant said.
''We've been more innovative with Sunbrella in its use of residential looks for the outdoor market than anyone else,'' said Gobble.
''We expect to continue emphasizing innovative styling with the residential line for the furniture manufacturer,'' said Allen. ''We have a terrific opportunity to grow this business.'' In another unusual development, Glen Raven, launched an e-commerce Website and consumer catalog, featuring products manufactured by its customers like Mitchell Gold and Michael Thomas, Gant said. The third catalog will be introduced this spring and will feature home furnishings fabrics and apparel items as well as furniture for sale to consumers. ''Only better goods will be featured,'' Gant said. ''Anything associated with Sunbrella must be of premium quality because Sunbrella is associated with better apparel and home furnishings. We want to understand what the business is doing, what fabric colors are selling and what influences the consumer.''
Gant's global vision also affects the new decorative fabric division. The new residential fabrics division for the indoor market is expected to become an important addition to Glen Raven, which is well known internationally for its Sunbrella outdoor fabric business. Sunbrella is sold to customers in Shanghai, Indonesia and Hong Kong.
If customers make umbrellas in China, then Sunbrella fabric is shipped to these customers, Gant pointed out. Glen Raven is now operating in 105 countries, in some cases on a joint-venture basis with local partners, he said. Glen Raven supplies a wide range of fabrics to customers worldwide including Nike.
Gant recently returned from Shanghai to inspect a deepwater port in Ningbo where the company may be doing some shipping to China based customers. ''We sell our products worldwide, wherever our customers need them,'' said Gant. ''As a result, we have established offices in 30 cities worldwide and have established a separate airfreight and shipping business with hundreds of customers in many different industries.''
''Wage rates in good manufacturing areas of China are $100 a month. Mexico is not the answer for the U.S.A. China has made labor available for the rest of the world and we can't find enough labor in the U.S.A. For example, the Chinese built a 100-mile road from Ningbo to Shanghai in two years using one million people to do it.'' Gant said he places people first before all other things in his business. ''We've invested heavily in people, technology, marketing, quality and safety. We've installed Oracle data base software. Nobody lost their job at Glen Raven because of technology. As a result, we have introduced new technology to our operations, faster than anybody else.''
''We've virtually eliminated lost time due to accidents. We won't operate any part of our business if our people are not going to be safe.''
Recently, 24 employees lost their homes due to heavy flooding. Glen Raven shipped 17 container loads of household goods to these people. Some lived in the factory for a week while their homes were being restored.
Gant Didn't Balk at Trading His Chickens For Textiles
The American Civil War saw the beginnings of Glen Raven Mills when Allen Gant's great grandfather was looking for work at war's end. ''He first took a plow to the field and realized he was at the wrong end of the mule,'' said Gant. ''Then he went to work in a store and traded one dozen chickens for dress materials. Later, he worked at a little mill in Altamahaw, a forerunner to a denim mill bought by Burlington Industries,'' Gant said.
He worked there as a part owner for eight years and eventually bought the whole mill by 1800. He even applied to the U.S. Postal Service for its own post office. ''He wanted anyone to be able to send a letter to Glen Raven 27217 in the U.S.A. and have the letter get there from any part of the world,'' said Gant.
The origins of the Gant family were in Scotland. His ancestors - the Erwin and Anderson clans - were first noticed in the Baltimore area in the 1700s.