Las Vegas—Harold Traister, a 63-year floor covering industry veteran known for his sales acumen, networking ability and mentorship, was honored Feb. 26 with Floor Covering News’ 12th annual Al Wahnon Lifetime Achievement Award.
The coveted award was presented to Traister by co-publishers Steven Feldman and Dustin Aaronson at the Abbey Carpet & Floor convention here.
FCNews established the Lifetime Achievement Award in 2010 to recognize and celebrate individuals who have made significant contributions to the floor covering industry and, more importantly, worked toward its betterment over a sustained period of time. Simply stated, the award is intended to recognize service and leadership that is of a scope and duration to be considered a lifetime achievement.
“I feel honored. Just look at the list of people who have earned this award,” Traister told FCNews, referring to a list that includes Sandy Mishkin, Ralph Boe, Don Finkell, Jeff Lorberbaum, Michael Goldberg, Piet Dossche and Olga Robertson. “I’ve been in the industry 65 years and have always tried to help people, and still am. I’m as busy as ever and I love what I do just as much as ever.”
Traister exemplifies everything this publication seeks in a Lifetime Achievement Award winner. Over six-plus decades, Traister has been referred to as the industry’s best salesperson but has also been a mentor to many.
Traister is considered an industry legend. That legend began at World Carpet, which was one of the largest carpet mills before being purchased by Mohawk in the ’90s. Traister was World’s top salesperson, and his Northeast region was the company’s largest.
“Harold always went for the order,” said Bill Waters, senior vice president for The Dixie Group, and at one time a Traister disciple. “It wasn’t romance or anything like that. He was going in to write an order.”
Tom Pappas, vice president of sales for Revolution Mills and a fellow regional vice president for World back in the day, agreed. “He always wanted the order. He asked for it right up front. He always got inside the customer. He was able to be the guy’s best friend. They wanted to buy from Harold because you could always depend on Harold.”
Pappas said it is Traister’s entrepreneurial spirit that has driven him throughout his career. “He always had the drive, even now at 83.”
Steve Mintz, vice president of franchise development, Abbey Carpet, summed it up: “I don’t know anyone in the country where if Harold was calling wouldn’t know who he was.”
Sy Cohen, founder of Stanton Carpet, said Traister basically ran World Carpet for Shaheen Shaheen. “He was a super-agent, a complete innovator in the sales aspect, and he knew everybody. What made him an innovator? His personality; he was outgoing but not overly aggressive. He was always willing to help people. The Northeast was World’s No. 1 area because of Harold Traister. He would open with a close to not waste time.”
Traister is credited with starting the World tradition of warehouse sales, where retailers were invited to the warehouse for one day. Those were quite lucrative for the company.
He also opened distribution for World: Elias Wilf in Baltimore, Certified in Pittsburgh, NRF in the Northeast were just a few. He also did business with every big retailer in the New York metro area: Kaufmann Carpet, Allen Carpet, Giant Carpet, Sandler & Worth, Einstein Moomjy. “He was a fixture to all those people,” Mintz said.
Equally important is that people learned from Traister. “He helped me become a better manager because back then you didn’t have a warehouse to run for World—you had to run a profitable warehouse,” Waters said. “So, if you wanted to add another person, Harold would say, ‘Do you know how much we’ve got to sell to make enough money to pay for that extra person?’ Just simple things like that where you look at the business overall and know the pieces rather than just saying, ‘Yeah, let’s do this.’ You need to think things through.”
Shortly after World’s sale to Mohawk, Traister worked for East Coast distributors Apollo and then Bayard. He originally came to Bayard as an agent/consultant but he and the Wohlfarths immediately connected, and he quickly became a full-time employee. His primary function was getting Bayard up and running in the New York area, but that was not where he was going to stop. He eventually became vice president of sales.
Donnie Wohlfarth, executive vice president at the time, recalled those days. “It is an impossible task to summarize Harold Traister in a few sentences,” he said. “His No. 1 contribution was his networking ability. He knew of everything and everyone in that northern New Jersey/New York area. But his realm of knowledge was vast outside that area as well. Bayard grew this area tremendously in large part to Harold and what he was doing. He was also integral in kicking off Pergo in the New York/New Jersey area for us.”
Most recently, Traister has been opening franchises for Abbey Carpet. Over 15-plus years he has brought in 62 members. He was hired to recruit members in the Northeast but now goes all the way down to Virginia and as far west as Michigan and Ohio.
Today, for example, he teaches Abbey members how to make more money, more margin, make their lives easier, how to work smarter. He talks to members about P&L. In illustration, he taught one Abbey member to add a delivery charge that added $250,000 annually to that retailer’s bottom line.
Traister joins an illustrious list of Lifetime Achievement Award winners that includes:
- Sandy Mishkin, the former president of CCA Global Partners
- Don Miller, CEO of Roppe
- Ralph Boe, who has turned many companies around
- Don Finkell, formerly president of Anderson Hardwood and American OEM
- Jeff Lorberbaum, chairman and CEO of Mohawk Industries
- Pierre Thabet, president of Boa Franc/Mirage
- Michael Goldberg, CEO of Rite Rug
- Piet Dossche, father of WPC and a $6 billion waterproof category
- Olga Robertson, president of FCA Network
