After working behind the scenes over the past few months developing new products and programs for its dealer partners, Shaw Industries is ready to take the wraps off some of the new introductions slated to debut at its 2024 winter markets.
The spotlight will be on expansions to Shaw’s signature Pet Perfect collection. Shaw research shows there are approximately 85 million households in the U.S. that have pets and they spend more than a billion dollars on pets each year. “We know that this market has a huge opportunity for our retailers,” said Annie Cowart, senior vice president of customer and sales enablement. “Pet Perfect really encapsulates what the performance of the product does; it kind of tells the story without having to fully tell the story. And I think when you’re trying to reach your consumers, or a retailer wants a simple story, that product line and collection really helps tell that without having to get too far into the details.
“But it’s safe to say we’re definitely going to continue to focus on that Pet Perfect collection, which offers comprehensive range of carpets, rugs, cushion, specially formulated cleaners as well as the newly introduced mineral core products. We’re so excited to see that continue with some new colors and designs, and we want to continue the energy around that.”
Dealers who love the Anderson Tuftex line of products, according to Cowart, will be particularly pleased with the rollouts scheduled to launch in early 2024. “What retailers are going to see in our A-T launches are going to be some ‘wow’ products,” she stated. “They are beautiful, they’re exciting, they’ve got a lot of movement, but they also have some simplicity to them. I think it’s probably the most beautiful line we’ve had in a long time. So I’m really excited to see the reaction.”
Moreover, those products will speak directly to what Cowart calls the “premium buyer,” part of a $3 billion consumer market. “These buyers are looking for something really different; they want something distinctive,” she noted. “These products are going to be something people wouldn’t find everywhere. They want something that stands out in their home and they’re willing to pay the premium to get that.”
While Anderson Tuftex products will continue to consist of both hard and soft surface curated collections, there will certainly be more of an emphasis on the fuzzy stuff. “We have led in carpet for 50-plus years, and we want to continue to lead in carpet,” Cowart told FCNews. “Yes, there is a decline in the category because there’s so many different options, but I also think that there’s such an opportunity, especially in the Anderson Tuftex line, to really bring that distinctiveness and personality to a room. We think carpet is just such a beautiful product that enhances a home. So, yes, we’ll have a blend of both hard and soft surface, but we really want to create that wow factor when it comes to our carpet products.”
With respect to hard surface introductions in 2024, Shaw will continue to shine the spotlight on its COREtec brand and its many iterations. Take Soft Step, for example. Launched in 2022, the product remains a favorite among COREtec dealers, so it’s looking to further capitalize on the popularity of the brand.
“We launched it a while back, but we’re going to be adding more firepower to that collection,” said Jon England, senior vice president of brand. “We’re also putting the spotlight on Scratchless, which addresses one of the biggest consumer needs out in the market today.”
The new COREtec launches don’t end there. New to the brand in 2024 will be a COREtec Tile collection that goes directly after the ceramic market. “We’ve historically been in the tile visual space, but we’ve really taken that to a new level in terms of capabilities,” England stated. “In the past there have been some limitations historically around tile visuals in resilient constructions. We’re breaking the molds there to bring something that would be very welcomed, I think, from our consumer base. At the same time, this answers a big challenge for our dealer partners—labor. We’ve had customers visit our campus over the last six months and one of the biggest things they talk about around ceramic is the lead time around labor. Plus, the process is very laborious—and destructive. If you’re replacing ceramic tile in a home, the install process is three-plus days.”
COREtec Tile, according to England, solves those issues. “With this new collection we’re giving something that the consumer aspires to have in a ceramic visual, but we’re making it more affordable and easier to access from a labor perspective. Now we have a resilient product that can go into a wet space area such as a kitchen or bathroom. Not only does COREtec tile have the same aesthetic appeal of ceramic, but it also offers comfort and warmth—all those things that traditionally aren’t provided by ceramic.”
While England said the new COREtec Tile line is built on a different platform than COREtec Stone, which launched a few years ago, he kept additional details of the product’s construction under wraps. “What I can tell you is it’s not going to be relegated to one construction,” he told FCNews. “It’s basically trying to marry the consumer to the experience or providing that experience that the consumer is after around those specs. We’re going to be more about storytelling from an experiential perspective than we are the technical aspects.”
While COREtec Tile will not be made domestically, at first, Shaw said it has provisions in place to ensure consistent supply. “We operate on a global map every day of the week, and we are very agile,” England explained. “The COREtec Tile collection will be sourced from multiple areas across the globe through multiple manufacturing sites. At the end of the day, we’re looking to put the best product with the best supply chain into the best consumer spot possible.”
