Tracy Reid, East Coast Design Center Manager from Shaw Industries spent some time with us to help you get to know Shaw Industries a little better.
What types of products are offered from Shaw? Hmmmm, there’s so many flooring choices we have to offer in numerous colors, styles, and tastes…We offer a full array of carpet, hardwood, ceramic & porcelain tile, laminate, and area rugs. So the question then becomes, what can’t we offer you?
What should consumers know about Shaw Industries? We create great floors for the places you call home-a privilege we take seriously. Also, we are a subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway Inc. and the world’s largest carpet manufacturer. Shaw is a leading floor covering provider because we believe in the voice of the customer.
What sets Shaw apart from its competition? We have many Shaw Advantages that set us apart from the pack. Life is messy! Therefore, we offer several exclusivities such as our patented revolutionary R2X stain and soil repellency, and Softbac Platinum backing. We believe training is key through our Full Disclosure Selling. We are focused on training design consultants and flooring sales consultants on the features and benefits of our flooring to help set proper expectations for consumer’s lifestyles.
What is the most popular selling product for Shaw? That’s a toughie to name just one! With our cutting edge R&D department and being members of the prestigious Color Marketing Group, we track the latest color and most popular design trends. In carpeting, we see our Anso® nylon patterned carpets emerging in our Inspired Spaces and Savvy Spaces line. In hardwood we are seeing Epic Legends take off. They are hand scraped distressed rustic visuals in wider planks. In tile, we are selling travertine visuals in larger formats mixed with our micro mosaics.
What awards has Shaw been given? We are very excited about being exclusively awarded all of the flooring in HGTV’s first ever Green Home! Also, a few of our most recent awards are from Floor Covering News: Carpet Manufacturer of the Year and Best Overall Manufacturer of the Year. We also won the CARE Large Carpet Recycler of the Year Award. Woo-hoo!!!
What efforts are Shaw Industries making to be more environmentally conscious? I’m so glad you asked. We are a recognized leader in environmental stewardship, because Shaw has implemented hundreds of sustainability initiatives and cradle to cradle design solutions. Collectively we’ve named them the Shaw Green Edge. For the sake of this blog, we’ll highlight three top initiatives ~ Anso® nylon, Evergreen, and Epic hardwood. We’ve developed the world’s largest carpet to carpetTM recycling process through Evergreen to turn old nylon carpeting into stunning new Anso® carpet. Our recycling efforts keep 300 million fewer pounds of carpet going into landfills every year.
Can you explain about Evergreen and tell me about Shaw recycling? This is getting a little technical, but it’s so important to know. Shaw invested in a cradle-to-cradle future with the purchase of the Evergreen Nylon Recycling facility in Augusta, Ga. All Shaw Nylon 6 products, such as all of Shaw’s nylon area rugs and carpets made of Anso® nylon or Evertouch® nylon, are simply recycled in a closed loop process-we call it carpet to carpetTM. At Evergreen, Nylon 6 carpets and area rugs can be repeatedly recycled into the building block for new Nylon 6 without any loss of aesthetic or performance characteristics. The exciting fact is that Nylon 6 products are recyclable over and over again – meaning it’s an ongoing lifecycle that can keep carpet made of Nylon 6 out of landfills.
Tell me more about specific green product options from Shaw. We’ve been talking about soft surface so far, let’s switch gears to hardwood. Shaw’s Epic Hardwood uses 2/3 fewer trees than traditional hardwoods. We continue to reduce waste, improve processes, and preserve natural resources through our Envirocore center. Have we invented a new tree? … Almost. Epic is real wood flooring, only better. It’s Made in the U.S.A! We offer Epic in domestic exotics such as: Hickory, Oak, Maple, American Cherry and Walnut. You don’t have to sacrifice style and design to go green.
What can buyers look forward to in the future from Shaw? We will continue to produce trendy, timeless, and environmentally-friendly products such as new ceramic tile introductions with recycled content. With our recent Anderson acquisition, we have gorgeous new hardwood introductions. We can’t wait for you to see them!
Thanks, Tracy!
No Responses to “Interview with Shaw Industries' Tracy Reid”
July 7th, 2009 at 2:00 pm
We sell Shaw products and in the four years that our company, True Hardwoods has been in business we have sold a lot of Shaw hardwood and laminate floors and have had no problems. I am really please with the Shaw product line and will continue to sell their products.
July 2nd, 2008 at 2:50 pm
Be very carefull about a laminate floor from Shaw with a 25 year wear through warrantee. We purchased a floor had a wear through problem they sent out a inspector who said it was not a manufacture defect. So what, you have a wear through warrantee, not according to them. This happened in the 2 year, I said ok just replace the 2 worn out panels and I will pay for it, sorry we don’t make it any more you have to buy a whole new floor. Not from you I won’t be.