CONCORD, North Carolina — With the acquisition of Dana Mills, Heritage House Fabrics LLC makes its third acquisition in less than a decade after starting up as a drapery fabrics distributor in 2003 that was producing $700,000 in sales during its first year when Hilb jokes he was "already an old man." Heritage House LLC generated $23 million in sales in 2007 and hopes in 2011 to recapture this pre recession pace with Dana and other acquisitions to follow.

Hilb started Heritage House LLC in 2003 as a drapery fabrics importer and distributor. In 2004, Heritage acquired the assets of ITC, an upholstery importer and converter; Belle Fabrics, another upholstery importer was acquired in 2007 and Dana is its latest acquisition.

According to Hilb, Heritage is "on the look-out" for other acquisitions in the fabrics industry. His strategy has paid off to continue the businesses he acquires by producing running lines for existing customers. His sales are strong though he has been affected by the industry slowdown along with everyone else, he said.

About 95 percent of his sourcing of Heritage drapery product is in Turkey. He feels that China is not competitive in this category and Hilb sees a resurgence in Turkish goods in general. He visited Evteks this year to see his principal vendors geared to the mass market lines he sells in the States. He is also a frequent exhibitor at Showtime in High Point, North Carolina.

“Showtime initially started with different dates," said Hilb. "We had a tremendous number of jobbers, small manufacturers and non furniture people that came originally; now we have a few jobbers. Today, it’s only a furniture fabric show. We still sell upholstery through our ITC and Belle Fabric lines but it’s only five-percent of our total sales. We sell a lot of closeouts at Showtime so it still pays to be there. With the dates changing to December and June, what retailer would still come?"

Hilb’s strength lies in his ability to find a way to make these smaller entrepreneurial niche companies to work to his benefit by supporting them financially and squeezing cost efficiencies out of the total structure.

“As the available business continues to shrink, there will be other opportunities to make further acquisitions in the fabrics industry," said Hilb. "We’re extremely well financed so a niche player could do well selling out and becoming a part of Heritage. We handle millions of yards of product with very little inventory shrinkage. We wring out efficiencies from warehousing and distribution.”

Heritage sells half of its product to the residential jobber; 20-percent to contract jobber which is growing fastest with five percent each to furniture manufacturers and other manufacturers; 10 percent to retail fabric chains stores and another 10 percent to miscellaneous customers. 

Read the article in our summer issue here.