MAGNIFICENT CARPET AWARDS:
ALL INDUSTRY WHOOPEE TIME

Industry gets together for Magnificent Night
 at the Georgia Aquarium

Winning Grins

Winner Loloi Rug : Machine-made, $200 to $400 5x8
 From left, Chas Sydney, former senior vice president of Americasmart; Cyrus Loloi and Stephen Loloi of Loloi Rugs, Kevin Malkiewicz, vice president of rug leasing at AmericasMart

Winner Oriental Weavers Sphinx : Machine-made, under $200  5x8: Chas Sydney, Pat Muschamp and Aaron Gray of Oriental Weavers, and Kevin Malkiewicz of AmericasMart.

Winner Kaleen : Outdoor Rug: Joe Barkley, exec vp of Kaleen, with Chas Sydney, former senior vp of AmericasMart.

Winner Amer Rug : Handmade, hand-tufted/hand-hooked under $8 sq. ft. Monika Chaudhury Gupta and Tanuj Gupta.

Winner F.J. Kashanian: Hand -knotted $30 to $50 sq. ft.  Chas Sydney, Jonathan Kashanian and Kevin Malkiewicz.

Winner  Marcella Fine Rugs: Machine-made, $400 to $800 5x8 Ferooz Nahail, center, of Marcella,  joins Chas Sydney, left, and Kevin Malkiewicz



Winner Capa Imports : Hand knotted/flatweave, $50 to $100 sq. ft. Hassan Ginar, the Turkish rug manufacturer, accepts the award on behalf of Capa Imports. Presenting are Chas Sydney, left, and Kevin Malkiewicz

Hassan Ginar, left, of Ginar Halciciuk AG, Istanbul, Turkey, with John Murse of Rugs As Art, Sarasota, FL.

Mike and Miriam Thompson of The Rug Rack, Chattanooga.

Jila Kalantari, left, Oriental Rug Mart, Victor, NY; Alex Hosseinnia, Dallas Rugs, Dallas, and Reza Sattari of Oriental Rug Mart, Victor, NY.

Jim Benham and Mary Ellen Tieman of Crooked River Rustic, Petoskey, MI.

Tarah Horne, left, United Weavers; Sharian Garner and Ruth Sharian of Sharian, Decatur, GA; and Sandy Rose of United Weavers


Bob Fritz, left, of Oriental Rugs, Inc., Raleight, NC; joins Jim Webber and Carolyn Will, Tibet Rug Co.

Left to Right: Tom Worthington of Radici USA; Mike Drewing of Kaleen and Clyde Heck of Kaleen.

List of winners, click here

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ATLANTA WINTER MARKET 2013
PEOPLE PIX
Page 3

PARTY TIME!

Surya Opens 15,000 sq. ft. Showroom
on AmericasMart 11th Floor
Home Floor


Satya Tiwari, left with new licensed designer Malene B. Malene was on hand to introduce her new collection and explain her design inspirations to market attendees and the Surya team.

Mark and Rose Lenchner of Surroundings Furniture, Pittsburgh, with Jim Govola, Surya's  top rep in 2012.

Kurt von de Bur, second left, welcomes the Rooms to Go team to the new 15,000 sq. ft. showroom. From left: Ryan Knowles, Pete Reich and Linda Bressler.

OH BOY, LOLOI GIVES GOOD PARTAY

Amir Loloi, president and founder of Loloi Rugs, with Mark Readel of Rug Guy Galleriez, West Dundee, IL.


Wayne Bently and Rhonda McMann of Jordan's Furniture, the Boston-based home furnishings giant, with Keith Arlinghaus, northeast sales manager for Loloi.


Randy Kremer, left, president of Rugs Direct, Winchester, VA, with Cameron Bagheri of Loloi.

Handsome Herb Cantor, left, with Stalwart Steve Fruchter
 of Montauk Rug, Farmingdale, NY.

AMERICAN RUG CRAFTSMEN
 PREVIEW PARTY
AT EXPANDED KARASTAN SHOWROMM

Brandon Culpepper, vice president of specialty sales for Mohawk Home, introduces Rakesh Agarwal to the new American Rug Craftsmen brand. Agarwal heads Rug & Home, the North and South Carolina chain of home stores.

Rob McMenemy, left, regional vp for Karastan and American Rug Craftsmen, Pattie Wojtkiewecz and David Snedecker of Nebraska Furniture Mart, Omaha; and Marilyn Freeman of Karastan and American Rug Craftsmen.

John Thompson, left, of Karastan and American Rug Craftsmen, with Scarlett King, James Carpets & Lighting, Decatur, AL.

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ATLANTA WINTER MARKET 2013
PEOPLE PIX
Page 4

The Rugs Direct Gang visits Jaipur: From left, Bill Martin, exec vp and Adrienne Wooddell, head of merchandising for Rugs Direct; Asha Chaudhary, ceo of Jaipur, and Randy Kremer, president of Rugs Direct, Winchester, VA.

Sam Belak, left, northeast divisional sales manager for Oriental Weavers-Sphinx, welcomes Paula Davis and Leon Sielawa of Rotman's, Worcester, MA.


At Amer, from left: Lynne Lewis and Terry Lewis from The Rug Merchant, Evvansville, IN, with Amer rep Mark Arne.

Fabric design god and Due Process licensing partner Wesley Mancini, second right, with the Due Process honchos Greg Bereza, exec vp; David Grasse, president, and Mike Massman, vice president of national sales.

Mark Ferullo, vp of  Rizzy Home, left, with  Mike Rollando, buyer for Tuesday Morning, Dallas.

Alex Peykar, center, principal of Nourison, with Ernie Shows, left, and Allen Anderson of Anderson Retail, Hattiesburg, MS.


At Kas, from left: Summer Turner and exec vp Hari Tummala of Kas, with Michael and Lisa Hall of The Rug Room, Paradise, Newfoundland, Canada.

At Harounian Rugs International, from left: Deodat Jugmohan, HRI showroom manager, Barak Rutledge and Steve Williams of The Persian Carpet, Durham, NC, and Greg Jovice president of sales and marketing, HRI.

At Chandra, from left: Carol Mills, Tammy Bittinger, Marci Salyer of Sigman Mills Furniture, Conyers, CO, and Ravi Tiwari, vice president of Chandra.

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ATLANTA WINTER MARKET 2013
PEOPLE PIX
Page 5


 Safavieh welcomes Kirkland sales team. From left: John Vlahopoulos of Safavieh; Karen Light, e-commerce merchandise manager; Jonathon Yaraghi of Safavieh; Brooke Bailey, assistant buyer for Kirkland's, Mark Krebs, vp of marketing for Kirkland, based in Nashville, TN.

Ken Porter, left, of Haynes Furniture, Virginia Beach, VA, with Tim Schantz, manager of national accounts for Dynamic Rugs.

Paul Alan Davison, center, of David Alan Rugs, Austin, TX, visits with Rafi Amirian, left, and Nader Shalom of Shalom Bros.

At Oriental Weavers-Sphinx, from left: Aaron Gray, director of marketing for OW; Bill Pace and Ty Pace of Pace-Stone, Eden, NC, and Jim Minter of OW. Bill retired a few years ago, but he can't stay away from markets!

At Kaleen newly expanded 6,000 sq. ft. showroom,  from left: Kevin Blaine and Monty Rathi of Kaleen; Dan Buerkle of The Rug Market, Rochester, NY, and Joe Barkley of Kaleen.

Greta and Jeremy Owens of Dalton, GA. provided mellow music at Kaleen's reception in honor of expanded showroom.

A-w-w-w-w-w. Tania Gupta attends her first market with mom and dad Monika Chaudhury Gupta and pop Tanuj Gupta.

At Paramount: Roshan Bhattari, right, Boss-man of Paramount, with sales agent Jeff Koehler.

 Dustin Van Fleet of Van der Fleet Resoration & Design, is  new licensing partner for Ray Ehsani, who heads vendor Sai Mehsani Fine Rugs.  Vsn Fleet has developed a value-oriented collections of custom hand tufted and hand knotted rugs from India.

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ATLANTA WINTER MARKET 2013
PEOPLE PIX
Page 6
 

At Tayse: Barbara Garrison, center, of the Tupelo Furniture Market, stops by for a chat with Harlee Bailey, marketing manager, and Jay Dogan, a company principal.

Tayse is expanding its woven kids rug with sprightly patterns such as this one. Made in Turkey, they retail for $149 in 5x8.

Karen Ellman, sales agent for Loloi Rugs, left, with Victor Khalafi, buyer for Gabberts, Edina, MN.

Randy Esco and Sharon Esco of The Depot, Montgomery. AL. Gotta love these two. Th share the same wedding anniversary as Bud and Lissa Wyman

The  Rugs Direct team seemed to be everywhere in the market. Here are Bill Martin, exec vp, and Adrienne Wooddell, head of merchandising for Rugs Direct, with Nader Shalom of Shalom Bros.

At LR Resources newly remodeled showroom. From left: Joe Mascari, Sr.; LR sales agent Charles Reason; Joe Mascari, Jr., and Krishna Laddha, principal of LR Resources. Joe Sr is with Beaulieu and Joe Jr. is with Joe Mascari's  are from Joe Mascari's Carpets & Rugs International of Allentown, PA.

At Pasargad: Designers Lindsey Ellis and Joy Matthews of JM Designs, Tifton, GA., visit with Richard Elebad and Beni Isfahan of Pasargad.

At Azra Imports: Company principal  Nahad Mir, sales rep John McCaul and marketing coordinator, Carla Buono.

A meeting of the minds at Safavieh Home showroom: Paige Puroni, left, of Colony Rug Co., Hannover, MA.; Jody Shapiro of Safavieh; Michelle O'Grady of Colony Rug and John Vlahopoulos of Safavieh.  The new Safavieh Home showroom is located across the aisle from tje rug showroom. Paige and Michelle said they are thinking of adding accent furniture to the store's merchandise mix.
Read the Rugnews.com editorial ,
click here

We ALWAYS get the young, good-looking guys to join us for one last market shot! Lissa Wyman, editor and publisher of Rugnews.com, is joined by Stephen Hoberman, left, national sales manager of Momeni, and Hadi Satari of Momeni.
Bye-Bye! See you in Las Vegas!

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