Balta U.S. Builds on Strengths

Home Textiles Today Staff -- Home Textiles Today, 10/15/2010 6:57:28 AM

NEW YORK - Balta U.S. kept its eyes keenly focused this market on building its strengths, which include indoor/outdoor styles, hand-carved constructions and shags.
     To its indoor/outdoor line, the company added a new higher-quality collection that is a cut above Balta's typical entry level price bracket offerings in this category.
     The new rugs employ heat-set, cable-twisted yarns, translating into a natural fiber-like product that works just as comfortably in home interiors as it does outside on the deck, and retails for a higher price range, from $89 to $129, vs. Balta's standard outdoor rugs at $69 to $99.
     "We use a more complex construction," said Patrick Moyer, president.
     Added Ashley Ocampo, national accounts manager, "We wanted the appearance of a hand-woven look, but the benefits of a [synthetic] rug. Our flat-wovens really look like natural fiber rugs. But they are more durable and feel softer."
     Also new for the indoor/outdoor line is the Natura copper-based palette, which draws its inspiration from contemporary patio furniture styles.
    Hand-carved rugs were also in Balta's spotlight this market. "A major focal point for us," Moyer said, is the company's new Da Vinci collection of hand-carved styles spanning transitional to contemporary looks. These rugs are carved in Turkey.
     "Our yarn technology allows us to create a heathered look and add luster on these rugs," Moyer explained.
     The retail is set at $149 for a 5-by-8.
Shags - from low to high pile heights - remain among the core programs for Balta. For this market, the company ran the gamut, all the while offering new colors and textures. The new berber varieties, for example, "look like real wool," Ocampo said.
     Moyer said Balta is able to achieve creating a broad shag offering thanks to "all kinds of different complex yarn systems" being used by the company.
     Finally, the Radiance collection is a woven grouping of 20 new designs translated onto a construction that mixes straight-set yarns with frisee yarns "for a more heathered look and a different luster effect," Moyer added. These woven rugs are priced at $149 retail.
     "Our woven rugs have that density and clarity in the designs that many tufted rugs don't," Ocampo said.