Wood, de Kort Save De Ball Velvet, Plan New Products
April 14, 2005
GRANBY, Canada — Cornelius de Kort and partner Christopher Wood are breathing new life into De Ball Inc., a revitalized dobby and jacquard velvet producer created from the assets of J.L. de Ball Canada Inc. They purchased De Ball from the receiver in late 2004.
"A downturn in the apparel velvet business and a cash flow crunch created by the opening of a De Ball mill in Zhangjiagang, China had put the company in financial straits," said Paul Flay, the former president who is filling in until a successor is found. Business partners de Kort ('Cor' to his friends) and Wood saw the potential of De Ball since it was always highly regarded in the trade for making quality velvets. The fact that so many velvet mills have closed over the years won't hurt their chances to turn the business around, said Cor, who is handling the sales and marketing for the mill.
De Ball has a production of five million yards a year.
Cor's first priority is to increase the volume through marketing initiatives in Europe where the strong Euro makes De Ball velvet very competitive, he said. His young partner Wood intends to increase the efficiencies of the De Ball operations as he learns more about textile production. Wood has already consolidated the Knoxville, Tennessee and Cleveland, Ohio, facilities of Imperial Wallcoverings, a previous purchase. Imperial product lines are now warehoused in Boucherville, Canada, along with Gencorp residential lines, which Wood bought in 1990.
Following the theme he knows so well, Wood is moving the entire De Ball velvet inventory to the same 200,000 square foot warehouse, realizing substantial savings over the leased warehouse formerly used by De Ball.
The 34-year-old mill with 100 looms occupies a 350,000 square foot factory about one hour from the American border where the bulk of its customer base lies. The mill also boasts a yarn-forward operation including rotary screen discharge printing for deep pile penetration and piece dying facilities.
Cor, a self-made textile man who emigrated from his native Tilburg, Holland to Canada in 1962 with only $50 in his pocket, now sees a big opportunity to export De Ball product with an updated look to European wholesalers of apparel and home furnishings fabric and large furniture manufacturers. The man who said that he started in business "because nobody else would hire me," sees some other potential mergers in the velvet business but he won't say when or where.
"All I can say is that globally, there are more opportunities in textiles than ever before and I am continuing to invest my money in this business when others may be running away from it," he said.
Nobody knows velvet better than Cor, who has spent his whole working life in it. He recently sold Raymakers Velvet, the Dutch producer of a 250 color line of velvet he had purchased in 1986. Cor said that De Ball is more an upholstery velvet line than decorative and sees Raymakers and De Ball as complimentary.
At one time, Cor owned half of the Crowson UK converting operation with Derek Crowson. Cor was also a principal in Kobefab America and Holland with Henk van der Stek, the Dutch wholesaler. He sold out to Henk five years ago but continues to operate Dekortex in Canada, America and Holland as a transfer printer and supplier to the Northeastern based wholesaler. Cor also owns several textile recycling businesses in Canada and Europe.
Wood, Cor's partner, supplier and friend for over 20 years, is the owner of Blue Mountain Wallcoverings Inc., which he said is the largest manufacturer of wallcoverings in North America with over 40 percent marketshare to its credit. At one time, Wood supplied Cor with wallcovering. Wood, who has a vision of building a total home improvement conglomerate, bought Blue Mountain in 1990. Wood also owns Bonneville, a window and door manufacturer which sells to the home improvement industry in Canada and the U.S. There will be other synergies between the wallcoverings and velvet lines, especially at the retail distribution level, Wood said.
The pair is not putting all of its cards on the table in this area but in time, it will be obvious how they will turn the business around. One area that will benefit De Ball is the ability to piggyback a new advertising campaign to be launched by Blue Mountain this year to promote residential wallcoverings to the North American market. "The jobber customer of De Ball will benefit from this advertising and the synergies of both lines, Cor said.
"A downturn in the apparel velvet business and a cash flow crunch created by the opening of a De Ball mill in Zhangjiagang, China had put the company in financial straits," said Paul Flay, the former president who is filling in until a successor is found. Business partners de Kort ('Cor' to his friends) and Wood saw the potential of De Ball since it was always highly regarded in the trade for making quality velvets. The fact that so many velvet mills have closed over the years won't hurt their chances to turn the business around, said Cor, who is handling the sales and marketing for the mill.
De Ball has a production of five million yards a year.
Cor's first priority is to increase the volume through marketing initiatives in Europe where the strong Euro makes De Ball velvet very competitive, he said. His young partner Wood intends to increase the efficiencies of the De Ball operations as he learns more about textile production. Wood has already consolidated the Knoxville, Tennessee and Cleveland, Ohio, facilities of Imperial Wallcoverings, a previous purchase. Imperial product lines are now warehoused in Boucherville, Canada, along with Gencorp residential lines, which Wood bought in 1990.
Following the theme he knows so well, Wood is moving the entire De Ball velvet inventory to the same 200,000 square foot warehouse, realizing substantial savings over the leased warehouse formerly used by De Ball.
The 34-year-old mill with 100 looms occupies a 350,000 square foot factory about one hour from the American border where the bulk of its customer base lies. The mill also boasts a yarn-forward operation including rotary screen discharge printing for deep pile penetration and piece dying facilities.
Cor, a self-made textile man who emigrated from his native Tilburg, Holland to Canada in 1962 with only $50 in his pocket, now sees a big opportunity to export De Ball product with an updated look to European wholesalers of apparel and home furnishings fabric and large furniture manufacturers. The man who said that he started in business "because nobody else would hire me," sees some other potential mergers in the velvet business but he won't say when or where.
"All I can say is that globally, there are more opportunities in textiles than ever before and I am continuing to invest my money in this business when others may be running away from it," he said.
Nobody knows velvet better than Cor, who has spent his whole working life in it. He recently sold Raymakers Velvet, the Dutch producer of a 250 color line of velvet he had purchased in 1986. Cor said that De Ball is more an upholstery velvet line than decorative and sees Raymakers and De Ball as complimentary.
At one time, Cor owned half of the Crowson UK converting operation with Derek Crowson. Cor was also a principal in Kobefab America and Holland with Henk van der Stek, the Dutch wholesaler. He sold out to Henk five years ago but continues to operate Dekortex in Canada, America and Holland as a transfer printer and supplier to the Northeastern based wholesaler. Cor also owns several textile recycling businesses in Canada and Europe.
Wood, Cor's partner, supplier and friend for over 20 years, is the owner of Blue Mountain Wallcoverings Inc., which he said is the largest manufacturer of wallcoverings in North America with over 40 percent marketshare to its credit. At one time, Wood supplied Cor with wallcovering. Wood, who has a vision of building a total home improvement conglomerate, bought Blue Mountain in 1990. Wood also owns Bonneville, a window and door manufacturer which sells to the home improvement industry in Canada and the U.S. There will be other synergies between the wallcoverings and velvet lines, especially at the retail distribution level, Wood said.
The pair is not putting all of its cards on the table in this area but in time, it will be obvious how they will turn the business around. One area that will benefit De Ball is the ability to piggyback a new advertising campaign to be launched by Blue Mountain this year to promote residential wallcoverings to the North American market. "The jobber customer of De Ball will benefit from this advertising and the synergies of both lines, Cor said.
