Global Textile Alliance to Begin Mill-Direct Operations Worldwide
December 11, 2001
HIGH POINT — Tim Dolan, the former vice president of Culp Inc. has left the company to begin his own importing firm, Global Textile Alliance Inc. Dolan is the CEO and president of the company and Steve Graven is onboard as COO and executive vice president. The firm was to begin operating on 1 January.
"The basic premise is that we will be bringing in upholstery from various parts of the world, mill-direct," Graven said. "We'll form alliances with major mills in Indonesia and China — for examples — and bring them to the United States where we'll have a full-service distribution center. We'll have sales, marketing, a showroom, credit, customer service and a warehouse."
Graven said that the company will also assemble merchandising and design teams. "They're going to help us go over to the mills and get the colors and designs that are right for the U.S. market.
"We're going to pick the best of the best from various mills and merchandise that back to companies to build a whole product offering. It could be from the low-end to the top end. It might be 50 items.
"We would be looking primarily at China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Korea and also the U.S. There's a good chance we can team up with domestic mills who are not happy with current channels of distribution. Our goal is to have the operation infrastructure to give them all they need so they can focus 100% on weaving fabrics."
Graven said the firm would have "stringent control" on quality by either hiring an employee to work in partnerning mills or by using an outside source.
"Between Tim and I, we have 36 years of experience in the industry. We know about the problems and we can alleviate some them." In October, the company acquired a 50,000 square foot headquarters. The facility, on four acres in High Point, NC, will house distribution, design, executive management, marketing operations, customer service and showrooms. Graven said the Global Textile Alliance is angling to provide efficient service to furniture manufacturers. "That's the reason for the warehouse and the inventory. We're going to build specific service programs to try to alleviate the long lead time on fabric delivery." As the company grows it will consider adding two more distribution centers in the U.S. in the near future, Dolan said.
"The basic premise is that we will be bringing in upholstery from various parts of the world, mill-direct," Graven said. "We'll form alliances with major mills in Indonesia and China — for examples — and bring them to the United States where we'll have a full-service distribution center. We'll have sales, marketing, a showroom, credit, customer service and a warehouse."
Graven said that the company will also assemble merchandising and design teams. "They're going to help us go over to the mills and get the colors and designs that are right for the U.S. market.
"We're going to pick the best of the best from various mills and merchandise that back to companies to build a whole product offering. It could be from the low-end to the top end. It might be 50 items.
"We would be looking primarily at China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Korea and also the U.S. There's a good chance we can team up with domestic mills who are not happy with current channels of distribution. Our goal is to have the operation infrastructure to give them all they need so they can focus 100% on weaving fabrics."
Graven said the firm would have "stringent control" on quality by either hiring an employee to work in partnerning mills or by using an outside source.
"Between Tim and I, we have 36 years of experience in the industry. We know about the problems and we can alleviate some them." In October, the company acquired a 50,000 square foot headquarters. The facility, on four acres in High Point, NC, will house distribution, design, executive management, marketing operations, customer service and showrooms. Graven said the Global Textile Alliance is angling to provide efficient service to furniture manufacturers. "That's the reason for the warehouse and the inventory. We're going to build specific service programs to try to alleviate the long lead time on fabric delivery." As the company grows it will consider adding two more distribution centers in the U.S. in the near future, Dolan said.
