MINK HOSTS FIRST-EVER NATIONAL SALES CONFERENCE FOR MACY'S RUG TEAM

The Mink Brothers, from left: Dave Mink, Sr.;
Fred Mink and Kenneth Mink.

By Lissa Wyman

ATLANTIC CITY, NJ -- Kenneth L. Mink & Sons, Inc., operator of the rug departments in Macy's stores coast-to-coast,  held its first national sales conference in early July at the luxurious Borgata resort here.

Over 30 Mink executives and regional managers took part in the two-day event. Major vendors such as Karastan, Nourison, Oriental Weavers-Sphinx and Bashian gave the group hands-on  presentations of new products headed for Macy's stores this Summer and Fall.

"This was a great opportunity to bring people together as to learn about new products and to learn about the direction we are going with Macy's," said David Mink, Sr. the company's chief executive officer.

"A lot of people had never met before, so participating in the conference really helped them to develop a real team spirit," Mink added.

KLM was founded in 1973 by Kenneth L. Mink, Sr. who had spent the previous three decades as a department store rug buyer in Philadelphia, New York and Washington DC. Since then, the company has operated lease departments in various department stores and furniture stores in the US. The company began running  Macy's lease departments in 1997 in Macy's East stores.

Effective in October 2009, all area rug departments in Macy's stores nationwide will be operated by Kenneth L. Mink & Sons, Inc. under a lease arrangement, according to an announcement  by Macy's corporate communications division.

The gang from Oriental Weavers-Sphinx  with Patty Huang,  senior vice president of marketing for KLM. The Sphinx boys are, left to right: Sam Belak, Brett Finkelstein and Pat Muschamp

Mark Tiedeman,left,  chief financial officer of Mink and Richard Kennedy, senior vice president of sales for Mink's coast-to-coast Macy's operations.

Steve Roan, right, head of the Karastan rug division, with the Mink folks from the Western Region. From left: Caroline Mink Richardson, Paul Cocklin and Eric Richardson.

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Kellie Cardwell and Brian Hayim from Mink's northwest region.
Like the Minks, the Hayims have been involved in the rug business for several generations.


Richard Lukowiak from the southwest division, Pat Boncimino from Chicago-land, and  Henry Ward,  merchandise manager for Mink.

From left,. Pat Boncimino of Chicago; Bryan Gittelman of Chicago; Ainsley Popwell of Atlanta, and Jerry Noack of the Florida division.

Left to right: Terry Hettington of Chicago, Ken Holtan of Detroit and David Melchor of Philadelphia.

Third generation of the Mink family is represented by David Mink, Jr. (aka Young Dave), chief executive officer, and Caroline Mink Richardson of the Western Division.

Jerrod Fraley, lefrt, of Mink's Southwestern region with Ted Evans, group regional manager and vice president of operation and logistics.

The REAL Bosses: Jan Mink, left and Dotty Mink enjoy the conference. Jan is Mrs. Fred Mink and mom to Caroline Mink Richardson and Dotty is Mrs. David Mink Sr. and mom to Young Dave Mink.
 

Left to right: Rob Green of the Bridgeport distribution center; Jerry Noack of the mid-Atlantic region, and Howard Daue of the mid-Atlantic region. Daue has worked with the Kenneth L Mink & Co. for 28 years.

Stephen Peykar, a Nourison principal, with Ron Giampiccolo, executive director of national accounts for Nourison.

07.14.10