Mohawk buys Brumlow division

By Staff -- Home Textiles Today, 7/1/2003 12:00:00 AM

Sugar Valley, GA — Mohawk Home is building its core bath rug business with the purchase of the tufted bath rug division of Calhoun, GA-based Brumlow Home.

The transaction should add about $22 million in sales to Mohawk's $169 million bath rug business, HTT estimates. The deal also expands Mohawk's category share in the mid-tier channel. The category is Mohawk's second largest, although it is not quite half the size of the company's $332 million area rug business.

Bill Kilbride, president of Mohawk Home, told HTT the acquisition represents various advantages for his company.

"[Brumlow Home] has always made high-quality product, and not an opening price point. And, of course, so do we, even though we reach more levels of retail," Kilbride said.

Tufted bath rugs had comprised one-third of Brumlow Home's total business, Mitchell Brumlow, president and ceo, told HTT. However, the company decided that the direction the business is headed "is better suited for someone the size of Mohawk, [which is a] totally vertical company."

Brumlow will now focus on the printed accent and area rug programs it produces through an affiliation with LaGrange, GA-based Milliken & Co. as well as its other accent and area rug styles made of other constructions, all domestically made at Brumlow Home's headquarters.