Flooring manufacturers and buyers gathered January 8-11, 2019, for a week of flooring events held over 12 locations throughout Dallas. The industry has converged in the region during the second week of January for many years to do business, and buyers have had to travel to several different venues in order to source new products from their suppliers and prepare for the upcoming year.
“It’s a lot better than its been in years past because everyone was spread out around in the various hotels,” said John Klotz, national sales manager, D&M Flooring based in Torrance, Calif. “It’s a much better atmosphere, so our customers can get business done in a shorter amount of time.”
Distributors Adleta, BPI, Swiff-Train and T&L, and manufacturers Dreamweaver, Emser Tile, Interceramic, Mohawk, Phenix, Regal Hardwoods, Shaw Floors hosted their own meetings. The This year, Market Maker Events, producers of the Southeast Flooring Market, the Southwest Flooring Market and the Mississippi Coast Flooring Market, unified 40 other exhibitors one roof at the Toyota Music Factory with an additional 40 exhibitors, drawing buyers from a 500-mile radius. “We are looking to double our dealer base this year,” said Ryan Adamson, eastern sales manager Tesoro Woods.
“We have about 90 displaying dealers at the moment and making a hard press to do that. “The goal is to get these guys all under one roof because it's just so difficult for buyers to work a market like this,” said Lisa Lundrigan, senior sales executive, Market Maker Events. “It used to be held in 17 different locations. Now it’s at 11, so a little bit of consolidation has happened. It's only because by the time we launched, the other companies were already locked into their contracts with the hotel properties.”
Next year, the Southwest Flooring Market will move to AT&T Stadium, home of the Dallas Cowboys, and Mohawk, Dreamweaver, BPI, Adleta Corporation, T&L Distributing, Stanton and Trinity will move their markets to the event. “Having the many different flooring companies and manufacturers under one roof offers a level of convenience that our dealers have been looking for in this yearly event,” said Calisa Olson-Upham, regional sales operations manager, Mohawk. “This show will finally give our customers what they really want by putting the Dallas Market under one roof,” added Scott Carson, director of marketing and product development, T&L Distributing. “This show is all about our customer base and making it easier on them.”
For more information, visit swflooringmarket.com.
