Within a few short years, the Stanton Carpet Co. has transformed itself from a soft-surface-only player into a full-service supplier, with a depth and breadth of product that could rival any flooring manufacturer.
Its portfolio now encompasses carpet, rugs, luxury vinyl tile, laminate, hardwood and even porcelain. In so doing it has been building out its staff, assembling a “dream team” of proven leaders—with Jamann Stepp (hard surfaces) and Trey Thames (soft surfaces) the latest high-level people to join Stanton.
FCNews recently met with the team in their Woodbury, N.Y.-based headquarters to discuss the present and future of this venerable brand.
Following are some highlights:
All-in on hard surfaces
Among traditional carpet mills, Stanton was not the first company to cross over into hard surfaces; it wasn’t the second or the third, either. Rather, it waited for the right opportunity to strike. “That was a big move for us, getting into hard surfaces,” said Jonathan Cohen, CEO.
The company started with 24 SKUs in luxury vinyl tile and spent about a year and half working on the product line, listening to feedback from customers. “Knowing that there’s plenty of suppliers, we asked, ‘How could we be different, how could we be important to our customers,’” Cohen said. “We knew we could leverage our brand and our reputation and our sales team, but at the end you still had to have something a little bit different—and fairly priced. So, I think we did a good job of doing that in the beginning. We differentiated by color and styling, enough to get [retailers] to acknowledge that Stanton was not just a soft surface company anymore.”
Two years ago, Stanton acquired Floors 2000, which serves the residential market with LVP and porcelain tile. The acquisition was positioned as a brand within the Stanton portfolio, offering well-styled product categories at a more value price point that could round out the entire assortment for LVP. “It became very clear shortly after that acquisition that we needed someone other than me running that part of the business—a full-time, dedicated, real expert,” Cohen said. “We didn’t have that in-house. We had enough to get it going but we were like, ‘Hey, this is a real business for us, we’re committed to this long-term. We need a dedicated experienced, really strong professional.’”
That man was Jamann Stepp, who previously helped market the leading COREtec brand and later launched TRUCOR for The Dixie Group. “I saw the opportunity to curate and cultivate a hard service program that mimicked their success in decorative soft surface—and not just go out and try to sell purely on price,” Stepp explained. “And obviously, that segues into other categories that we’re currently expanding into. It’s all about building quality and style/design and something innovative while being competitive on price. Unfortunately, a lot of our industry races to the bottom but that’s not the equation that leads to long-term success.”
Over the next 60 days Stanton will be rolling out a new WPC line that will impress for its design, color and innovative film. “It’s a creation that we’ve worked on with some of our film suppliers,” Stepp said. “We’re working on cultivating color and design on film, and we’re going to own that design process and control it from start to finish.”
Stanton expects to have 55 WPC SKUs by Surfaces, with more announced at the show in January 2025. The products will run the gamut from narrow to super wide plank, with embossing and pressed bevel looks.
Stanton’s hard surface push also extends to laminate and wood. The former recently launched with a 24 SKU collection. Decorative again is the separator with Stanton laminate. “It’s all decorative laminate—the NuvoMax and NuvoLuxe collections. But I think it’s priced competitively in the market for what it is,” Stepp said. “Again, we’re never going to be the low ball, lowest giveaway kind of artist out there. We’re going to try to sell on who we are, our relationships, the fashion, the design, what we offer in a first quality-rate product. Everything that’s being worked on film-wise is scrutinized and very well thought out. I think the color range is awesome.”
Stanton is launching wood in January, with 36 SKUs to start. “I’m excited about all of it, but I’m extremely excited about what we can do in the premium wood category and how that parlays into all of the soft surface products we offer in the mid-to-upper tier,” Stepp added.
Products will include a wide width, herringbone pattern planks and some “super wide body” engineered European white oak. “So, an in-depth, 36 SKU collection that covers skinny to wide. Then also chemical reactive staining, some prime, even some AB select. We’re going to put a few SKUs in there that are pure prime premium grade.”
Stanton’s porcelain portfolio, meanwhile, is expected to grow by about 140 SKUs by next year.
Soft surface adds muscle
In June, Stanton named Trey Thames to the new role of senior vice president of soft surface, where he will lead overall sales responsibility for Stanton’s soft surface business. As Cohen explained, “For us to continue to evolve and grow we felt like we needed some more muscle on the soft surface side. To make sure we have the best metrics and the best performing sales team, to be able to utilize Mitch [White] in a great way—and there’s nobody better at unearthing opportunities and business out in the market than Mitch—we needed Trey; it’s a phenomenal one-two combo.”
Thames, who has held senior executive positions for Shaw and Mohawk over three decades, believed Stanton was a perfect fit for what he wanted to pursue. “Just talking to them initially, hearing their vision, what they’re looking for in this position, the opportunity and where Stanton was going was extremely appealing as far as what I was looking for. This just makes sense for what I like to do, which is the sales part of it where we are all helping each other, getting involved in strategy and marketing. Those are all things that appeal to me.”
Thames knew about Stanton’s product acumen but wanted to ascertain what its customers thought. “It was overwhelmingly positive,” he said. “It just seemed like a really good fit and a really good opportunity. We want to grow and we’re investing in the business. We’re not pulling back in the business. So those are all fun things.”
Stanton’s well-oiled soft surface team now has Thames at the helm along with Mitch White, who is transitioning into the new role of vice president of key accounts and promotional sales. White’s dynamic leadership and sales abilities have been a cornerstone of Stanton’s extensive growth over the last 20 years.
What’s more, Adam Feldberg, senior director of product development, collaborates with founder Sy Cohen on product development; they are supported by Christine Zampaglione, who handles product marketing. “Trey’s going to have a lot of input on product development, and he’s already been weighing in a lot,” Cohen said. “But on the hard surface side where we’re a lot less mature, Jamann has the honor of handling everything.”
But help is on the way. Last month, Stanton announced the appointment of two senior leadership positions for hard surface. Robbie Spurr will shift from the Midwest RVP to the Southeast RVP, and Arthur Scheel has been promoted to RVP of the Midwest Region having joined the company earlier in May as a territory manager. Additional hard surface sales and product managers have also been added, or are in the process of being added, several with COREtec experience.
“When we jumped into this, none of us had hard surface experience,” White explained. “So, we’ve grown a lot organically and now he can take us to the next level, especially on the decorative side, the better side, taking us to the places we’ve never been before. And Trey is just a perfect complement to help us get to that next level in soft surface.”
Stanton said its goal now and going forward is to be the leader in decorative—period. “That’s it for us,” Cohen said. “We could do it across soft and hard surface now. Customers can get everything they need from us. We have good representation, we have good inventory, we have great service, we’re easy to do business with, we’re flexible. And we’ll help you make more money.”
