Next Generation: These Textile Industry Leaders Carry the Family Torch While Forging a Bold Future

Representing the second, third and even fourth generations of leadership in their families’ businesses, the next era of textile industry leaders is a reservoir of talent, energy and vision. A bridge from the past to the future, they’re inspired by the legacy and wisdom of their elders, while embracing multigenerational collaboration that will advance their companies and the home textiles industry into the future.

SCOTT KAHAN

New business development, Regal Fabrics | Age 35

Tell us about your company and role. My grandparents, Herb and Arlene Kahan founded Boston-based Regal Fabrics in 1987, and I joined three years ago. While I do a little bit of everything, including operations, customer relations and marketing, my position is business development.

What new innovations and initiatives have you been involved in at your company? The most exciting initiative I’ve been involved in was the due diligence, purchase and integration of a portion of the Diversitex business. The acquisition enabled us to expand into an exciting new collection of casual lifestyle fabrics called Kindred, in natural fibers like cotton, linens, hemp and recycled yarns with a focus on sustainability.

What recent achievements or improvements are you most proud of? In an effort to offer faster service turnaround and more custom collaboration, we have begun doing short-order custom digital printing production in Boston on 24 different base cloths we carry. In the past, we did all our digital printing offshore and it took at least 10 days to get a strike-off for approval. Now that we are doing it domestically, we can turn it around in 24 to 48 hours.

ANDY KAHAN

Market manager, Regal Fabrics | Age 31

Tell us about your company and role. Regal Fabrics was founded by my grandparents in 1987, and our family— including my grandfather, father, aunt and brother—has a hand in just about all aspects of Regal. My role involves wearing many hats, but I am primarily focused on customer relations, marketing and strategy.

What new innovations and initiatives have you been involved in at your company? Along with launching our stand-alone Kindred brand focused on sustainable and natural fabrics, we’ve recently focused on refreshing our branding and online presence, which includes a totally revamped more user-friendly website, weekly blog posts, a monthly newsletter, updated packaging, a new mission statement and more. It was exciting to be a part of all of this and see the immediate feedback from customers benefitting from the updates, as they interact with our brand in new ways.

What recent achievements or improvements are you most proud of? We have benefited immensely from the additional space and capabilities we’ve added with our new headquarters, which we moved into right before the pandemic hit. The extra inventory capacity has allowed us to win on quick turnaround projects for customers in dire need of product. It has given a huge boost to the efficiency of our shipping and receiving efforts. In addition, we built out a showroom similar to our High Point meeting spaces, originally meant for customer visits, but in the pandemic became a great stage for our virtual showings – allowing us to keep in contact with customers directly and keep introducing new product while keeping our distance.

What’s your favorite part of your job? My favorite part of the job is being able to tell our story—to discuss with our customers and partners not only our product, but our process, our philosophy, and our progression from importing tapestries as a three-person startup to moving into our 94,000-square-foot headquarters.

DREW PATTON

National sales, P/Kaufmann/Golding Fabrics | Age 36

Tell us about your company and role. P/Kaufmann is a family-owned company, founded in 1957 by Peter Kaufmann in New York City. I handle furniture sales for the Golding Fabrics and PK Lifestyles divisions. My father, Bob Patton, has been with P/Kaufmann Inc. for over 28 years as sales manager for furniture. I began my career working with Ningbo Fubang Furniture in Beilun, China, where I lived in the dorm at the factory. This was an invaluable experience, learning the manufacturing and design process for furniture and picking up the Mandarin language.

What new innovations and initiatives have you been involved in at your company? It’s been gratifying to help reposition Golding in the marketplace as a viable upholstery resource, focused on improved designs, with the capability of meeting project-specific demands on a global scale. We have been fortunate to experience growth with retail partners during the current business climate, and our team’s ability to work together in meeting customers’ specific needs, despite challenges, is what we’re proud of the most.

What is your favorite thing about your job? We always hear people refer to the past, and to wanting to spend more time with family. I’m fortunate that I get to work with both of my parents, as well as extended family throughout the industry.

ALLEN GANT III

Director of retail, Sunbrella | Age 37

Tell us about your company and role. Sunbrella is a well-known and trusted brand of Glen Raven, a family-owned textile mill that was founded more than 140 years ago by my great-grandfather, John Q. Gant. In my position as the director of retail at Sunbrella, I am responsible for forging and supporting retailer partnerships.

What new innovations and initiatives have you been involved in at your company? It’s been rewarding to identify and build a dedicated retail team, allowing Sunbrella to bring value and consistency to partners throughout the full supply chain from manufacturing to retailers. I am also excited about the industry’s future in digital and ecommerce, and our work with partners to meet consumers where and how they want to shop. We’ve made strides, and our digital skill set is a strong point, driving consistency in messaging and raising awareness across the board.

What recent improvements, solutions or achievements are you most proud of being part of? One highlight is the opening of our new headquarters in Burlington. Our business was growing, we needed more space, and it became clear we needed to invest further in our operations to continue to meet the needs of our customers. Rather than build new, we recaptured and completely refreshed our historic mill space that was actually my great grandfather’s first building over 120 years ago. This project was special to our family and business, because we were able to create a completely modern and progressive space that surrounds our associates in the Sunbrella brand and also maintains our heritage and respects our past.

ANDERSON GIBBONS

CMO, Revolution Performance Fabrics | Age 28

Tell us about your company and role. Family-owned and operated since 1964, Kings Mountain, N.C.-based STI, the precursor of Revolution Performance Fabrics, was founded by my grandfather, and is primarily owned by my mother, Lisa Gibbons, and her two sisters, while my father, Sean Gibbons, serves as CEO. I joined the company seven years ago after working at both a tannery and a textile company and studying at the Jake Jabs School of Business & Entrepreneurship at Montana State University.

What new innovations and initiatives have you been involved in at your company? When I joined Revolution, it was known as STI and was an unbranded OEM company that sold textiles to furniture manufacturers who serviced mass market retail chains. The strategy I’m most excited about is helping to create the Revolution brand. It’s a brand that’s synonymous with stain resistance and ‘Made in the U.S.A.’ We also helped bring the once high-end performance fabric category to where the average American could afford them.

What recent achievements or improvements are you most proud of? The very first thing I did, before I ever ‘officially’ joined the company, was develop and design our website. Since then, we’ve progressed to become a digital brand through thought leadership, educational posts and online “social listening.” Today, we have well over 100,000 visitors who come organically to our website each month, over 13K followers on Instagram, one million impressions monthly on Facebook, and participate in other platforms like TikTok. We now have a team of five full-time employees, including me, devoted to social media marketing, listening and engagement.