Nourison adds machinemade accent rugs

By Staff -- Home Textiles Today, 6/20/2002 12:00:00 AM

Saddle Brook, NJ — Continuing to build on its three-year-old domestics accent rug division, Nourison recently added a new construction to its offerings — machinemade accent rugs.

Titled Valueweaves, the new line is made in Nourison's joint-partnership factory in China and is composed of hand-carved, machinemade, poly-acrylic, machine-washable rugs with a dry-matte finish. They are set to retail for $14.99 or less for a 2' x 3', a lower price point than the division's typical line of hand-made offerings, which sell for $19.99 to $29.99.

"We are going in this direction because, while we do a substantial business with the department and specialty stores with our handmade goods, we weren't addressing a whole other important sector of retail — the mass merchants," Gary Shafran, sales and marketing manager for the accent rug division, told HTT. "They were telling us they liked our product but that $19.99 was too high for them. They needed something at $14.99 or less. And this new collection targets just that customer."