Kea Capel Meachum new brand director for Gulistan and Bacova

-- Home Textiles Today, 12/16/2004 12:51:00 PM

PINEHURST , N.C. — Ronile Inc. recently recruited Kea Capel Meachum to help expand product offerings, broaden distribution and direct design and marketing initiatives for its Gulistan Carpet and Bacova Guild Ltd. divisions.

Meachum, who started this week, has been appointed to the newly restructured position of business and brand director of area rugs for both Gulistan and Bacova. She begins her stint at the Gulistan division, further developing its product offerings to include handmade imported varieties from China and India and expanding its distribution to include furniture specialty stores beyond the division’s core base of carpet specialty stores, Meachum said.

Ronile launched Gulistan’s in January and set up a permanent showroom at the Atlanta AmericasMart, where in July the company debuted with two machine-made collections – Gulistan 1,000 and Gulistan 1,100.

"I have the chance to build a fully fleshed-out, fully-marketed rug business," Meachum said. "As an architect, I like to be given the perfect piece of property and a creative and well-funded client who has only one direction — build the very best and most exciting structure. I hope to deliver style, elegance and excitement to Gulistan."

The appointment marks Meachum’s third ongoing business. She also licenses her KEA brand and designs to Homemaker for a line of casual braided rugs and serves as the soft home goods style expert for Home Shopping Network, where she also makes monthly live on-air appearances.

Meachum will present Gulistan’s newest machine-made collections in January at the Atlanta International Area Rug Market. The collections include Stainmaster woven area rugs, printed and hand-carved Stainmaster rugs, and 10-color polypropylene woven rugs.

She added, "We are first to market with a woven Stainmaster area rug collection, and intend to build momentum for our dealers with area rugs that will keep them competitive, fashion-forward and profitable."