06162005 Central Natco Maine Visit

CENTRAL ORIENTAL GROWING THROUGH
 NICHE PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT

In the middle of things: Johan Mulan, president of the Natco/Central manufacturing facility and Jim Thompson, vice president of sales for Central Oriental.

By Lissa Wyman

SANFORD, ME -- For the past four years, Central Oriental has been quietly gathering strength as a developer and manufacturer of niche products for  the nation's independent stores and small to medium size chains.

"This is a microcosm of the rug industry," said Jim Thompson, vice president of sales. He was referring to the company's manufacturing facility here in New England. With six high-speed, eight-color Van de Wiehle looms, this plant is small and nimble enough to serve as both a laboratory for new ideas and a full production facilitiy.

Natco Home, the parent of Central Oriental, purchased the rug mill approximately four years ago. Since then, the company has been updating equipment, adding finishing equipment and developing new distribution systems to facilitate service and delivery.

Johan Mulin is the president of the manufacturing facilities. He has been headquartered at the plant since its early days as Rainbow Rugs. In the past four years, he has devised and implemented a major production transformation.

"In the beginning, the plant produced low end rugs, primarily using five color looms and straight polypropylene yarns," he said.

"In the past four years, we have converted all the looms and created a state of the art facility."

Under Mulin's guidance, the plant can now produce a variety of  constructions, many which are usually associated with European manufacturing.

Eight-color Van De Wiehle loom.

Some of the plant's capabilities include:

• All looms with eight-color capability.
• Cross-weaving capability on two looms which can  produce additional color effects.
• Machine carving
• Million-point constructions with cotton backing for flexibility and high pile height for softness.
• Space dyed nylon rugs
• Roll runners
• Multiple sizes (10 or 11 per collection) up to 12x15
• Shapes including new ovals, rounds and hexagons.

"Natco started with a low-end factory and transformed it into a boutique facility," explained Thompson. "Going forward, our aim is to continue to be more innovative and to lead rather than follow in terms of design, new products and service."

Central and Natco are keenly aware of the rug industry's hot  competitive climate. "We still produce some straight poly products that retail as low as $49 in 5x8. And we pride ourselves in our competitive edge in space dyed and million point constructions. The heart of our price range is at the $299 retail level," said Thompson.

In the past year, Natco has expanded and strengthened its design staff, and the benefits are beginning to pay off already, Thompson noted. Under the design direction of Tressa Carrier, Natco and Central Oriental now have a large staff of designers and a growing archive of artwork.

"Central Oriental represents just one part of the Natco Home product family. Our ability to develop a total family of products that work together provides us with a distinct competitive edge, particularly in terms of larger multi-product stores."

Thompson, who is headquarted at the company's main offices in West Warwick, RI, comes to the plant frequently. "I feel that I have a real hands-on commitment to this plant. There is a lot of team effort between design, production and sales and marketing. We all have input," said Thompson.

Thompson also said that Central frequently hosts visits from its retail customers at the plant. "The retailer input is especially valuable. They can tell us about their needs. And we are small enough to act quickly on those ideas."

Mulin also noted that customers are eager to learn the technicalities of rug production. "When we explain  the challenges and opportunities of the machinery, customers gain a much better understanding about what we can and cannot do. They  are very willing to work with us within our parameters."

Moving forward, Thompson said that the product development team is working on several new projects that will reach full production in the next few months.

An eight-color loom contains approximately
10,000 bobbins.

• A new color creel is now being put into place. Adding or changing a color palette is a monumental job for every rug manufacturer. The task involves purchasing massive amounts of yarns and changing 10,000 bobbins on a single 8-frame machine. Putting a new creel on a loom  takes approximately two weeks, a period in which the loom is not running.
• Oval rugs. "We have very high hopes for our oval shapes. It's something our customers have been requesting, and I believe we are unique in this shape," said Thompson. "We will be showing an 8x10 oval in our million-point Radiance collection this Summer." The new shape will retail for approximately $599.
• A new indoor-outdoor, fully synthetic product is currently being tested.
• Contemporary-style million point rugs.
• A group of 1.5 million point rugs is now being developed.

Look for oval rugs from Central this Summer.

"We are constantly looking for new products, new shapes, new ways to be different," said Thompson.

While the Maine manufacturing facility gives Central an opportunity to develop niche products quickly, the company still maintains strong ties to its Belgian and Turkish sources, said Thompson.

The parent company Natco Home is devoted to the mass market business, while Central Oriental continues to specialize in specialty, furniture and smaller chains.

Natco recently opened a factory in China for the production of home textiles items. That facility does not manufacture rugs.