Top Producers Hail From Industry's Fringe

New York— It probably says a lot about the state of the U.S. home fashions business that the five highest paid executives in the industry last year were on its periphery — producing carpets, tiles or decorative fabrics, rather than mainstream home textiles like sheets and towels.

And as they have in the past, they mostly took it to the bank largely in the form of stock options exercised, reflecting the relative financial strength of the handful of publicly reporting companies.

The industry's fattest paycheck last year went to Larry Liebenow, president and CEO of decorative fabrics producer Quaker Fabric, who pocketed $2.9 million in 2003— less than a fourth of that in salary, $673,000, and the remaining $2.2 million in stock options exercised.

Holding down the second and third spots in this year's ranking are two floor-coverings execs, W.Christopher Wellborn, president of the Dal-Tile division of Mohawk, with $1.7 million; and W. Monte Thorton, president of Mohawk's carpet group, with $1.3 million.

Rounding out the top five are Howard Dunn Jr., president and chief operating officer of Culp Fabrics, and a perennial top earner; and Jeffrey Lorberbaum, president and CEO of Mohawk Industries, which derives by far the lion's share of its sales and profits both from its carpeting and tile businesses.

So much compensation is based on company performance, in the form of cash bonuses, that it should come as no surprise that only slightly more than half of the skippers in this year's profile, 13 of the 25, took home a bonus, reflecting the straitened circumstances of much of the U.S. home fashions businesses. That's about the same ratio as in 2002, when 12 of 21 executives banked a bonus.

In a chilling reminder of the state of the overall business, seven executives on this year's list of 25 — more than a fourth — are employed at two bankrupt companies, WestPoint Stevens and Dan River. And still drawing a paycheck in 2003 was Holcombe Green Jr., even though he was ousted earlier that year as chairman and CEO of WestPoint Stevens, a company he led into Chapter 11.