Being a member of the Wools of New Zealand Premier Partner advisory council, I had the opportunity to tour several wool carpet mills and facilities outside of Atlanta, GA. Our first stop was J Mish. J Mish makes all of their wool carpet in the United States. Their manufacturing facilities and warehouses are extremely clean. I have toured quite a few carpet mills during the past 20 plus years of being in this business. J Mish does something that I have never seen before. They do not leave any carpet roll unwrapped. If the roll is opened to cut 20′ off for an order, it is wrapped again before being put away. Our meeting continued through a great catered lunch that included, of course, sweet tea along with a home made strawberry shortcake. Thank you so much Don for hosting our group.
Our next stop was Godfrey Hirst. The mill is based in Australia. We were treated to a tour of their new larger distribution facility in Georgia. Godfrey Hirst is the largest manufacturer of wool carpet in the world. Our meeting with Godfrey Hirst’s “numbers man”, John Sheffield was time well spent as he guided our group down a path that we feel will pay great dividends to the select Premier Partner showrooms. Thank you to John & Lori for a great meal at the Barnsley Resort in Adairsville, GA.
Day two of our adventure started with a visit to Stanton Carpet which also includes the brands of Antrim, Royal Dutch and Rosecore. The company is similar to Godfrey Hirst in that they do not manufacture carpet in the United States. They import their carpet from throughout the world including China, Europe and India. The company does, however, fabricate area rugs in the facility in Georgia. They have huge air tables with binding and serging machines dotting the perimeter. Comments about having an air hockey tournament on these fabricating tables created some laughs. Again, we found the warehouse to be especially clean and were impressed by the volume of inventory.
Our second visit was with Hibernia Woolen Mills at a Mexican restaurant called La Paz in Marietta, GA. We had some time constraints due to travel plans. Eric introduced the group to some stunning new patterns and concepts that are a welcome addition to the current line of Hibernia products. Currently, Hibernia manufactures all of its carpet in the United States with distribution facilities in California and Georgia. In fact, the home office is in Whittier, CA about an hour away from our showroom. Co-owner Eric Sharff is a seasoned young veteran in this industry and seems to have set up a specific career goal in mind a couple of decades ago after leaving a position at Nike.
Perhaps the best part of the two day meeting were the new friends that I gained – Larry and Karen from Lafayette, CA; John from Houston; Kate from Chicago; Steve & Hilary from Boston; and Sam from Cinci.
The end result of our meetings and discussions is that the Premier Partner Showrooms are going to be able to offer our clients preferred pricing on ALL branded New Zealand Wool products twice per year, special wool carpet not found elsewhere in the United States, educated sales teams that are wool specialists and great product knowledge.
Visit our showroom you will quickly discover why we were selected at a Wools of New Zealand Premier Partner. Our showroom proudly offers the following Wools of New Zealand Mill Partner products: Bellbridge; Concepts International; Couristan; Fabrica; Godfrey Hirst; Hagaman; Hibernia; J. Mish; Karastan; Luzern; Masland; Nourison; Radici; Royal Dutch; Stanton; Weave-Tuft; Woolshire
HEMPHILL’S RUGS & CARPETS 230 EAST 17TH STREET COSTA MESA, CA 92627 949-722-7224
