Kas Oriental Rugs

-- Home Textiles Today, 2/26/2001 12:00:00 AM

Somerset, NJ

Kas, historically an importer of rugs from China and India, this year expanded its importing reach to include machinemade rugs from Belgium and Turkey.

"We wanted to bring in product from countries that best produce these machinemade rugs," said Austin Craley, vp, sales.

Kas started out as a "very small" company, importing only one line of area rugs from India. Today, Kas offers 40 different collections of area rugs, including hand-knotted, hand-tufted and hand-hooked varieties that are mostly wool but also come in silk, leather and acrylic.

"The advantages to importing are that costs for labor are much, much lower overseas-even when you add in the fact that you are shipping your products in from across the world," Craley said. "And the other thing is expertise. You can only get handmade rugs from places like China and India."