Venus Home moves into beach towels; Martineau to head

By Staff -- Home Textiles Today, 1/3/2005 12:22:00 PM

Foot Hill Ranch, Calif. — Bedding and bath supplier Venus Home has added beach towels to its offerings, and appointed Larry Martineau to head this new division.

Martineau is a longtime player in the category. Most recently, he worked for J.R. United as its national sales manager. Prior to that he worked for Hilasal from 1977 (when he joined the company as its national sales manager) through 2002 (when he was its president of its retail division). He left upon the company's sale to Brumlow Home.

"(Martineau) will be working with me on the designing and merchandising of the line and he'll be heading the beach line sales effort," Vivie von Walstrom, Venus' director of design and marketing, said.

Venus is also in the process of hiring two specialist beach designers who have previously worked with Martineau.

The company recently made the decision to expand into beach towels because it had the production and capacity in place, von Walstrom said.

"We now have three towel mills in India with tons of capacity, so we decided we could handle a big new category easily," she explained.

Previews of the new lines are slated for February during the mini-market in New York . Most of the product will consist of 40-by-70 double jacquard, terry and velour towels.