828 International Trading

-- Home Textiles Today, 2/26/2001 12:00:00 AM

Greenville, SC

"All we do is import-the U.K., Belgium, Turkey and India," said Ivan Phillips, executive vp.

Targeting the middle to upper-end retailers like specialty and furniture stores, 828 has historically produced machine-made area rugs.

But this year, in an effort to expand into a growing category, 828 has expanded its offerings to include handmade rugs from India.

"It's an enormous growth market," Phillips said. "It gives us more opportunity, but we also are hearing from retailers that they want to buy both machinemade and handmade rugs from the same supplier, so that's why we opted to get into handmades, as well. For retailers, it comes at a lower cost to deal with one manufacturer, and we believe that as an importer you need to provide both sides."