ADF OPENS IN MID EAST
IMAN'S RUNWAY HOME
ROBERT ALLEN REALIGNS
Houssam Rayess leads ADF's expansion by opening a warehouse in Beirut
Supermodel Fashion Icon Iman launches home fabric collection with P/K Lifestyles
Following his recent appointment to COO, Greg Tarver revamps senior management and launches mobile website for designers
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11 20 P08 IL XT A.1 TE G IM FI: HE F& E SE
Vol. 21, No. 1
The Global Home & Contract Furnishings Newspaper • www.fabricsandfurnishings.com
Winter 2010/2011
New Kobe Warehouse Rises from Ashes 100 Days After Fire by Marc Weinreich
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ALKENSWAARD, Netherlands — Kobefab International BV, a global wholesaler of residential and
contract fabrics and one of the largest in Europe today opened a new fully operational warehouse in October after a fire from a neighboring recycling plant destroyed its
16,000 square-foot warehouse on July 21. Stock of Kobe and Villa! Collections are being restored to levels on par with inventory prior to the incident. As before, the company is delivering ninety-six percent of all orders directly from stock. “Despite the immense efforts made by our suppliers and the
entire Kobe team, we are not able to completely restore all products,” said Roger Duhhuis, sales and marketing manager for Kobe. “On behalf of the entire Kobe team, we sincerely apologize for any inconvenience caused by the
Babei, Kentex Highlight China’s Shift to Domestic Market Sipco News Network
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New 10,000 sq ft warehouse after fire destroyed the old warehouse
D’ Décor Reports $150 million in Sales, Opens Drapery Business and Robotic Warehouse by Vish Wishwanath
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UMBAI, India — In a survey of top fabric manufacturers conducted by F&FI in 2000, D’ Décor, which then operated as Dicitex Exports, stood as the third largest with annual sales of $125 million. A decade later, it is reporting approximately $150 million in sales, and company executives expect it to grow another twenty-percent in 2011. “Opportunity was knocking and we chose to enter into furnishings and fabrics instead of fol-
lowing the herd,” said Ajay Arora, choose partnerships with designmanaging director of D’ Décor driven Italian artists. Home Fabrics Limited. “We also “It was our priority to create a had a good deal of suppliers and manufacturing mill that's flexible committed employees who were enough to translate the designs to helping to structure real fabrics,” said the business model.” Arora. “Now we are Arora recalls his adequately armed to “rookie days” when he blend and weave six was unaware that art different fibers, all of work could be purwhich can be transchased and further lated to a wide variinterpreted for designs. ety of fabrics. We can Soon after this discovengineer any properery, he steered the comty to optimize aesAjay Arora pany to consciously thetics.” (Cont. on pg 6)
delay of postponed deliveries.” Although the news shocked the industry, no one was injured and the main Kobe offices, showrooms and computer labs were not affected. However, stocks of product (Continued on pg 22) were dam-
HEJIANG, China — Babei, a vertically integrated weaver based in the Zhejiang province, is opening 100 showrooms in every major city in China over the next decade. Chinese manufacturer Kentex Mills launched a line of curtains in 2010 exclusively for the domestic market. Chinasia, another manufacturer of home textiles, is increasing its production capacity to gear up for a busy year ahead at home. In increasing numbers, Chinese textile companies are shifting the focus to the domestic market not only because the country emerged as the world’s second largest economy during the summer of 2010 but also many economic forecasters expect it to supplant the U.S. for the top spot as early as 2030. Babei has a seventy-percent stake in exports but is aggressively pursuing a plan to build its domestic market. It produces 30 million pieces per year, or three million meters annually, in products that
range from high-end silk jacquard fabrics for bedding, drapery and upholstery to fire retardant jacquard fabrics for contract and handbags. Yak Wang, president of Babei, discussed his plans in an exclusive interview with F&FI at Intertextile Shanghai in August. “Babei will shift from simply a fabric producer to a home solution supplier,” said Wang. “My plan is to really develop the high end market in China over the next five to 10 years. I want to diversify, do more contract and offer more polyester. Also, we imported 32 looms from (Continued on pg 6) France and
Yak Wang