CAPE GIRARDEAU, MO—RM Coco has acquired Wesco Fabrics from its owners, Marla and Dick Gentry for an undisclosed purchase price. Wesco Fabrics is a third generation family owned wholesale home furnishings business in the midsized national jobber category with sales in the $5 million range. Wesco has an open line of fabrics as well as exclusives under the Gentry Collection. “Wesco has a great name and a great customer base that will extend RM Coco’s reach especially in the Denver area,” says Michael Carr, Principal. Wesco covers Midwest, California, Colorado and some eastern USA markets. Showroom presence for Wesco will be complimented with RM Coco locations and vice versa. Wesco was Founded in 1946 by Joline and Harry Weiss in Denver, Colorado to sell venetian blinds and has since expanded to include decorative fabrics, upholstery and furniture including a workroom. RM Coco says it will expand its customer base by 25 percent with the purchase and will also get into the blinds business since Wesco is a Hunter Douglas distributor. Further, Wesco picks up Wesco’s furniture business, a new opportunity according to Carr. Wesco’s drapery hardware lines will bend with RM Coco drapery hardware business, he says. The Gentrys, previous owners of Wesco say that most of the staff, sales team and product lines along with the Denver based showroom will remain intact. RM Coco will share the Wesco showroom at the Denver Design Center according to Carr. The workroom will be consolidated into the Cape Girardeau facility. The Wesco corporate location is not part of the deal so Wesco staff will consolidate around the Denver Design Center. In other developments, RM Coco will open its first corporate showroom in the Dallas Design District March 1 according to Carr who also says that Design Director Mark Knight will install his studio in the facility of 6,688 square feet. Knight has been commuting to work in the Cape Girardeau offices for the past year but he’ll now be spending less time on the plane. Sharon Wolpert will be the showroom manager. Up until this point, RM Coco had 45 agent showrooms. At the same time, RM Coco has restructured and re-focused its brands into three categories: Coco Classics with product priced up to $50 a yard; Coco Suites with fabrics priced up to $70 a yard; and Coco Luxe by RM Coco priced at up to $150 a yard. RM Coco has also doubled the number of sample books in circulation, Carr says. In addition, RM Coco has signed a deal for the Tommy Bahama brand which Coco helped develop in the fabric business. “This is an 80 sku outdoor fabric line using solution dyed acrylics supplied by Sunbrella®, Carr says. RM Coco was purchased just over a year ago by the Carr Brothers, a distributor of work related apparel. It has completely restructured the business by purchasing 70 percent of its products from China, Turkey and India and the balance from the USA and Europe.