Alliance Flooring Emphasizes 13 Action Items at 11th Annual Convention

Chattanooga, TN — 3/3/08 Alliance Flooring, Inc., parent company of CarpetsPlus Color Tile®, Carpetland Color Tile and Floorco Direct to the Trade, recently held its 2008 Convention in Atlanta, February 23-26. The theme of the Convention was "Nextwork: Innovate in ‘08". Members were encouraged to focus on 13 action items to improve business and gain market share during seminars and breakout sessions.

  • Merchandise AMERICAN-MADE and GREEN products in carpet & hard surface to differentiate their stores from the competition
  • Maximize consumer CREDIT for higher average tickets
  • Embrace new TECHNOLOGY for improved operating efficiency
  • Generate new business through main street COMMERCIAL
  • DIVERSIFY into new product categories to gain market share
  • Maximize the COLOR TILE BRAND to improve consumer confidence
  • Utilize new TRAINING resources to educate salespeople
  • Continue to ADVERTISE to reach new customers and generate store traffic
  • SIMPLIFY the buying process for consumers
  • Adopt a COST CONTROL culture
  • Employ RELATIONAL MARKETING to increase sales and customer loyalty
  • NETWORK best practices with other store owners
  • Emphasize CarpetsPlus Color Tile STORE BRANDS to help maintain and increase your bottom line

The overarching merchandising themes for the group were "green" hardwood and products made in America. Holding to these ideals, the two biggest introductions were hard surface companions to the group’s well-established brands EcoChoice® and American Classics. EcoChoice Hardwood is a collection of superior hardwood flooring products that are both American-Made and environmentally responsible. These products use an engineered construction composed of an HDF fiberboard core with a real hardwood face veneer sourced from sustainably managed forests in the United States. The product requires less hardwood to produce than comparable solid or engineered floors, thereby conserving natural resources and creating less waste during production.

"We felt it was time to focus our efforts on strengthening our hard surface merchandising, beginning with hardwood," said Kevin Logue, vice president of marketing for Alliance Flooring. Building on their EcoChoice store brand, the environmentally-friendly collection established last year, they added a hardwood collection at this year’s convention. Logue continued, "We’ve had tremendous success with our EcoChoice brand in carpet, so adding a hard surface line was the next logical step. We received an overwhelming response to this new hardwood merchandising system at our Convention."

American Classics Hardwood, also a new introduction for 2008, is a complete collection of traditionally styled hardwood flooring products which are made in America. In addition to being manufactured domestically, each American Classics Hardwood face veneer is sourced from sustainably managed forests in the United States.

In the area of credit, Wells Fargo Financial Retail Services was in attendance and gave members insight into trends and how to grow their business through credit. Alan Peters of Wells Fargo said their research indicated that instead of paying a higher price for a no pay, no interest finance offer, dealers should consider offering a no interest with minimum payment plan. "We’re finding that many times consumers are paying minimum payments anyway so dealers should not pay extra to offer a no pay option," Peters said.

Rob Boland, Alliance Flooring’s Director of IT, gave a seminar on how to improve business through technology developed at Alliance Flooring. He spoke about a new tool that allows members to analyze their showroom’s performance down to the display and product level, among other improvements. He also said that a software package is available that gives members the ability to automatically track their rebates and make sure they are reporting correctly.

Training Space, a company that provides online training to the floor covering industry, has partnered with Alliance Flooring to bring online sales training geared specifically to flooring retailers. Each member of Alliance Flooring receives one free license of the online training and, if a member of the World Floor Covering Association, a second license at no cost.

Alliance Flooring also offered private, one-on-one advertising consultations with the industry’s leading expert in advertising and marketing, Sonna Calandrino. She spoke about offering the consumer value and making sure they know who you are as a store and being clear in your advertising message. Bonnie Bilyeu of Heartland Floors in Ankeny, Iowa had this to say about her meeting with Calandrino, "It was highly beneficial meeting with Sonna. She helped us get back on track by targeting specific areas and gave us things to focus on."

The group also stressed diversification in the products and services their members offer. Among those products were window treatments, wall coverings, closet organizers and natural stone. "We’ve stressed this in the past but now more than ever, our members need to offer a diverse range of products and services to ensure they take full advantage of every sales opportunity," said Jon Logue, co-CEO of Alliance Flooring.

Mark Lapolla, a former Goldman Sachs financial analyst, often featured on CNBC, provided members with valuable information about how to make their businesses financially stable during tough times. This first-time, outside-the-industry speaker, gave some background on how we arrived where we are now and how long he expects us to be here. Ron Dunn, co-CEO of Alliance Flooring, commented, "Now is the time to control internal costs, build cash, invest in your own business, perfect business systems, improve customer service and establish your store as the flooring professional in your market. Those who accomplish this will survive this challenging time and come out on top of competition when the economy picks up."

This process has already been implemented by some. Ryan Dunn, vice president of sales for Alliance Flooring, was enthusiastic about the group’s Retailer of the Year awards. "The Retailer of the Year award rewards those who embody the real meaning of being an Alliance Flooring member. It’s something they strive for. I always have someone tell me after the fact that next year’s award will be theirs. It’s a difficult choice for us because we have so many great retailers."

Retailer of the Year Award Winners

Mark and Mary Ann Dougherty of Hoosier CarpetsPlus in Bloomington, IN, won Retailer of the Year for the group’s CarpetsPlus Color Tile division. Kevin Rose of Carpetland USA in Rockford, IL, won for the Carpetland Color Tile division and Wendy Werner, Floorco of Milwaukee, won Floorco Business Owner of the Year.

Member Quotes

"The panel of members who spoke of Best Practices during Opening Session was great! They put out some really good information that I will put into action to help sustain my business during these tough times."

– Larry Hampton, CarpetsPlus of Iowa, Cedar Rapids, IA

 

"This convention was the best one so far! It was more informative and interesting. Each event is better than the last. We met more members and conversed more about our businesses than we have ever done."

– Mary Lynn Tanner, Red Mountain Carpet, Apache Junction, AZ

 

"Mark Lapolla was impressive because being outside of our industry, he certainly had no agenda, and while not being pessimistic, he was very realistic and gave me some reasons of why I’ve been feeling the way I have. I appreciated his, "how to survive and when to come out of survival mode" information".

– Mark Stiegman, At Home Floors, Largo, FL

 

"We loved it! After the Venice Summit in ’07, we joined CarpetsPlus Color Tile. It is such a refreshing change. We’ve attended other "buying group conventions" and were very hesitant to try networking with others, as it proved to be an uncomfortable and unapproachable experience. I now have to change my mindset"!

– Mary and Howard Young, Howard Young Flooring, Milton, FL

 

"There was much more communication and interaction with Carpetland members and CarpetsPlus members at this convention. This entire event was very fruitful...".

– Gene Podell, Carpetland, Roanoke, VA

 

About Alliance Flooring, Inc.

CarpetsPlus Color Tile®, Carpetland Color Tile®, Floorco and Color Tile® Outlet are divisions of Alliance Flooring, Inc., a retail-licensing group representing more than 450 flooring retail locations across the United States. CarpetsPlus began with a philosophy that emphasized independent store ownership backed by the buying power of a national chain. Pairing the historic strength of Color Tile with the national resources of CarpetsPlus and Carpetland has created a national chain of premier floor covering design centers. For more information visit www.allianceflooring.info or www.carpetspluscolortile.com.

Click on any picture below to download a high resolution photo.

Pictured is the 2007 CarpetsPlus Color Tile Advisory Board. Left to right - Ron Dunn, Bill Smiddy, Travis Wichern, Scott Melkonian, Jerry Butler, Randy Reed, Mike Montgomery, Bonnie Bilyeu, Bob Pireu, Dana Bilyeu, Pete Ritchey, Wendy Werner, Jon Logue.

David Garibaldi, the inspiring artist from Los Angeles, puts on an energetic show set to upbeat music as he paints, in a matter of minutes, a 6 foot portrait of a pop icon during the Welcome Dinner.

The Exhibit Hall was buzzing with excitement as dealers flocked to the new EcoChoice Hardwood display in the Shaw booth.

Jon Logue, co-CEO of Alliance Flooring, delivers his speech during the Awards Dinner.

The audience listens as Ron Dunn, co-CEO of Alliance Flooring, addresses members during the Awards Dinner.

Members take advantage of unbelievable deals at the 2nd annual Rush Hour Event where suppliers offer their best pricing on rolls and pallets.

Ryan Dunn listens to comments from the Advisory Board as new ideas are presented.

Ryan Dunn, Ron Dunn, Jon Logue and Kevin Logue during the busy 2008 Convention in Atlanta.

Sonna Calandrino and Margo Locust of Sonna & Company and Fabulous Floors magazine with David Ellis of Alliance Flooring take a break to pose for a photo with Scott Melkonian during his advertising consultation.

Tom Lape, president of Mohawk Industries residential, offers his thoughts during the General Session.

Vance Bell, Shaw Industries' chairman and CEO, speaks during General Session.

The popular industry speaker Warren Tyler gives members something to think about as he speaks during the General Session.