Lindsey Michiels heads B.I.C. Sales & Marketing

The Belgian carpet and rug manufacturer B.I.C. has a new Sales & Marketing Manager: Lindsey Michiels replaces Diederik Peferoen, who retired this year. "For me, the human touch in the customer relationship is particularly important," explains Michiels. Accordingly, she places great emphasis on personal contacts and trains the B.I.C. sales team herself. Currently she pays particular attention to B.I.C.'s new cradle-to-cradle collections made from Econyl yarn.

Domotex Hannover 2021 postponed to May

Domotex Hannover 2021 will definitely take place – in May. From 18 to 20 May, Deutsche Messe AG will be hosting the world's largest international trade fair for floor coverings. This decision has been made after consulting with various exhibitors and visitors. "There has been extremely positive feedback on this, and we are confident that many participants will revise their cancellations for January," says Alexander Wurst, Senior Vice President International Trade Fairs at Deutsche Messe AG. At the usual Domtex dates in January, the organisers are planning to host a digital fair including hybrid elements.

Virtual roundtable on hand-knotted rugs on Tuesday

Would you like to participate in a lively Zoom discussion on the situation of handmade carpets in times of Corona? Then join the virtual roundtable on Tuesday, 25 August, 10 a.m. Eastern US time (3 p.m. GMT, 4 p.m CET) .The event is organised by the Kabul Carpet Export Center (KCEC), whose aim is to put Afghan carpet producers in touch with international buyers.

Several panel disussions will cover the impact COVID-19 continues to have on the weavers in Afghanistan and the markets for handmade rugs in Europe and the Americas. Tim Steinert, Editor-in-Chief of Carpet! Magazine will host a panel discussion entitled "Overview and state of rug sales around the world". Other panels will deal with the present and future of the handmade-carpet trade, reports from major production centers, and design trends.

Joining is easy – if you already have Zoom installed, just click on the following link: bit.ly/2Ecv9P6

Tollison new Executive Vice President of Couristan

Couristan, a big US importer and manufacturer of fine area rugs and broadloom, has appointed Matt Tollison to the position of executive vice president of area rugs for its Residential Division. Under Tollison’s guidance, the company will also look to strengthen its sales and support teams.

Tollison most recently was vice president of product management at Orian Rugs serving as liaison between product development and manufacturing as well as sales operations.

Seven new XXXLutz stores in the Czech Republic

XXXLutz is obviously serious about the XXXL in its name: This August, seven more stores were added to the three existing stores in the Czech Republic; these are the seven former Kika stores acquired last year. The furniture giant is now represented in all regions of the Czech Republic. According to company spokesman Thomas Saliger, Lutz is pursuing the goal of "being number 1 in every country and at every location where we operate".

XXXLutz opens central warehouse in Zurndorf

XXXLutz's new central warehouse in Zurndorf near Vienna is about to be completed and will be in use from December 2020. With an investment of around EUR 60 million, the retail giant has created around 120,000 m2 of storage space here; due to stackability, the total storage space of the building will amount to 290,000 m2.

The work was carried out in close coordination with the Federal Office for the Protection of Monuments, as finds from Roman times were secured on the property at an early stage. In addition to many small finds, a Roman villa with partially preserved underfloor heating was uncovered.

A 3000 m2 photovoltaic system installed on the roof of the warehouse will cover the requirements of the entire site, surplus energy will be fed into the grid. Up to 320 new jobs will be created here.

Balta: Sales plummet

The Balta Group has announced that its global revenues in the second quarter of 2020 fell by 36.5% to EUR 106.7 million compared to the same period last year. The corona pandemic has had a different impact on revenues in the three divisions: Rugs -35.2 %, Contract -28.1 %, Residential -43.7 %. On the positive side, all the Group's closed factories were reopened in mid-May.

XXXLutz/Möbelix opens in southern Austria

The modern XXXL furnishing centre in Wolfsberg (Austria) is now finished: the new Möbelix discounter already welcomed a large crowed of visitors when it opened at the end of September, the XXXLutz furniture store will have its first day on 20 October. This means that it took less than 12 months from breaking ground to completion. The new furnishing centre in southern Austria covers a gross area of around 24,500 m2*.

Swiss investor buys back Conforama

In 2011, the South African Steinhoff Group had taken over the French furniture retail group Conforama; now Conforama Suisse has been sold to a Swiss investor. The Swiss daily newspaper "Blick" reported the buyer to be the entrepreneur Dan Mamane (48), who has been negotiating with Steinhoff International for over a year. According to "Blick", the economics graduate has so far invested exclusively in companies from the electronics industry; a company of the size of Conforama Switzerland has not been part of his portfolio before. In 2019, the 22 Swiss Conforama branches generated sales of SFR 450 million (around EUR 419 million); Dan Mamane's Power Data Holding, in turn, "only" achieved sales of around SFR 100 million (around EUR 93 million).

Steinhoff makes settlement offer

Scandals have been accumulating at Steinhoff in recent years: At the end of 2017, it turned out that the South African trading group with German roots had "fluffed up" its balance sheet by more than EUR 6 billion, and as a result the share price plummeted massively.

There are now around 90 lawsuits against the company from shareholders and partners with a total value of over EUR 7 billion. So what now? Now the company is offering the plaintiffs a settlement, as reported by the news agency Reuters. The total value of the offer amounts to EUR 850 million, i.e. little more than 10 % of the amount claimed. Steinhoff wants to pay half of this amount in cash and half in shares of its African subsidiary Pepkor. According to Steinhoff CEO Louis du Preez, the company had been working for twelve months to put together the settlement. "In our view these terms are firmly in the best interests of all stakeholders," Reuters quotes him as saying. Without an agreement, Steinhoff is threatened with closure.