FALL RIVER, Massachusetts — Victor Group is pushing for more custom work from its customers according to Martin Roy, general manager, residential market.

Roy has been in his post for one year. His first order of business was to improve delivery of the three residential brands, Atelier, ($6-$15); Craftex, ($15-$35); and Terrazzo, ($15.95-$32). We have 96 percent on time delivery at this point,” Roy said. “We have stopped all operations in China. Every residential fabric is woven in the USA. Contract and apparel fabrics are woven in Canada and are the concern of Alain Duval, Victor’s owner,” he said. Nellie Durocher and Martin Roy

“Business is at a higher level than last year. We now have 20 percent of sales in custom products but we want as much as we can get. We have over 100,000 pieces of artwork with the acquisition of Quaker and Craftex with 12,000 different yarns. Victor develops its own yarns including novelty space dyed polyester yarns. “Open line is not unique. We want to go beyond open line and bring an edge to our customers. We want to close the gap with our key customers to show them our design capabilities.”

Roy feels that custom is the real strength of his company.  We work to differentiate ourselves every year. We want our customer to look at us as friends and develop custom looks with Victor,” he said. “We are trying to bring more novelty product to market. With 12,000 different yarns, one can do a lot. Yarn shortages are not a problem for us.” Roy draws on the expertise of three in house designers including Nellie Derocher. She reviews different products with her customers on an iPad.  F&FI