Westgate Offers Archives A la Carte

By Staff -- Home Textiles Today, 2/14/2007 12:00:00 AM

At the New York Market — As an added service to its larger retail customers, Westgate's decorative pillow division now offers its products — including pet beds and throws — in any of the company's thousands of fabrics.

"In the past, we would select the specific styles and put them into our line," said Neil Zuber, evp. "But now, we're basically allowing our customers to choose any fabric from the Westgate line and the Westgate trim line."

That means "opening ourselves up to thousands — I don't how many exactly — but literally thousands of different fabrics, and hundreds of different trims," Zuber said. Westgate's fabric archive dates back to 1991.

So how will Westgate keep from overwhelming its customers with options?

The same way it always has, Zuber said.

"We have our own line that we'll present and we'll build from there," he explained.

"We'll show them a pillow and they might like the fabric, but in another color, or maybe they want it in a different shape or size, and we can do that, too."

Aside from the fabric and trim archives, Westgate's decorative pillow division has its own sample archive that dates back to 1999.

"We have a line of about 1,200 skus," Zuber added. "We have a huge program but we're able to do it because we are first of all a fabric company, and the advantage with pillows is that we can make them in any style and turn them around quickly."