by FCNews staff
MOVEMBER: During our exclusive visit to AGT to see its DRI-core operations, we observed something interesting: All the men were sprouting a mustache—some had full fledged ’staches while other were…let’s just say we’ll give them an A for effort. It seemed too much to be a coincidence, so we in-quired what this was about. Sure enough, the company was participating in a campaign to raise awareness of and find a cure for prostate cancer and other male cancer initiatives. AGT pledged $100 for every mustache grown during the month of November.
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MO INFO: Begun in 2003 in Australia, November has become Movember, raising more than $174 million. Last year, nearly 448,000 people around the world—over 65,000 in the U.S.—participated in the event, raising $80.7 million. Movember follows on the heels of National Breast Cancer month in October. Women may be the primary purchaser of floor coverings but men still play a role in the final decision, so kudos to AGT and its employees for bringing attention to this worthy cause. To learn more about Movember or to make a donation, visit movember.com or call its U.S. office in Venice, Calif., at 310.450.3399.
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HILLTOP: On Dec. 17, the Chicago Floorcovering Association (CFA) will present Robert Hill with its 2011 Person of the Year award during the association’s Presiden-tial Awards & Dinner. In 1976, Hill founded the specialty store Floor Covering Associates (FCA) in Shore-wood, Ill. Today, FCA has six locations in the Chicago area as well as a national buying group comprised of more than 50 franchisees. Along the way, he has served as chairman of the World Floor Covering Association, re-ceived CFA’s Retailer of the Year award and the Illinois Home Builder’s Association’s Subcontractor of the Year award. Along with Hill, CFA will present awards for Retailer of the Year, Whole-sale Salesperson of the Year and the brand new Retail Sales Associate of the Year in honor of Leon Engel. To learn more, call 800.627.1299.
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DIRTY WORK: Did you know there are more than 40,000 carpet cleaning companies in the U.S. doing approximately $3.8 billion a year? And, the top nine franchising systems do not dominate? This is according to the 5th edition of “The U.S. Carpet Cleaning Industry” study by service sector research company Marketdata, which projects industry receipts to grow 3.2% yearly starting in 2012 and reaching $4.4 billion in 2015. This is encouraging considering the recession has wrecked havoc on the segment. In 2009, receipts saw their sharpest drop in 20 years, falling 7%. In 2010 they posted a modest gain of 1.5%. And this year revenues are expected to fall about 3%.
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CLEANING UP: The point? According to the 164-page Marketdata study, “Lots of untapped market potential exists.” It noted only 20% of all households actually pay for a professional carpet cleaning service with the remaining 80% either choosing to do it themselves or not at all. Also, just as specialty stores have expanded their offerings beyond the days of when they only sold carpet and resilient, cleaning companies are diversifying as a means of capturing more business. John LaRosa, re-search director, noted carpet cleaners are now cleaning a variety of hard surfaces, tile, stone and wood. In other words, they are becoming full service. “They’re also getting into cleaning air ducts, tile and grout, and doing restoration work, which in itself is a lone bright spot as they’re been no shortage of fires, floods and tornadoes the past few years.”