828 Int'l doubles size of Atlanta showroom

Staff -- Home Textiles Today, 1/7/2002 12:00:00 AM

GREENVILLE, SC —

Area rug importer 828 International Trading Co. recently expanded its showroom at the AmericasMart, home of the biannual Atlanta International Area Rug Show, to 6,000 square feet — double the size of the company's original showroom.

828 took over the former space of Carousel Carpets, which was located next door to 828's space in showroom 6-F-1.

"We didn't have room before to show all of our products, and now we've grown so much that the additional space was necessary," Ivan Phillips, executive vp, told HTT.

In the past few months since it took over the new space, 828 knocked down the wall dividing both showrooms and made some repairs to "change the configuration," Phillips said.

In the new showroom, added space will be devoted to the company's most popular collections: its line of hand-knotted goods, first introduced in July; its two-year-old Axminster Sonet Series 50-color rug from England, which continues to be well received; and the four-year-old Royal Millennium 1.5-million-point product. Phillips added that over the past year, 828 has grown its sales by 70 percent.

"We've acquired placement with many new customers, all within our usual customer base of independent furniture, carpet and rug retailers nationwide," he said.