Craftex Mills Promotes New Lines
By Staff -- Home Textiles Today, 7/3/2006
Blue Bell, Pa. —Craftex Mills is taking a three-pronged marketing approach with its new program as the licensee for decorative fabrics for the Antiques Roadshow.
For the Antiques Roadshow collection, the company has developed an array of fabrics that it plans to feature with a range of independent retail fabric stores and major fabric chains, large furniture retailers and upholstered furniture manufacturers, according to Jack Eger, vp, sales and marketing.
The collection of 30 patterns and 90 skus is based on the “Antiques Roadshow” TV show and marketing will use that theme, he explained. Prices range from $12 to $25.
Key to the presentation is an antique style trunk set on a stand that will hold the fabrics in a dedicated kiosk in a store, along with the three sample books, each holding a pair of specific themes, and swatches. The fabric themes are Rugs, Tiles, Tapestries, Navajo, 18th Century Botanicals and Americana — all related to essence of the show's historical themes and heirlooms, Eger said.
Currently, the program will be all open line, and will include cross-marketing with other Antique Roadshow licensees: Pulaski (furniture), Momeni (rugs) and Dale Tiffany (lamps).
Marketing will be both on a local level with the retailers picking the advertising vehicles, and on a national basis, with a cross-merchandised ad set to run in the September issue of This Old House magazine tying in the four licensees, Eger related. In-store hangtags and other point-of-purchase materials will be available.
Craftex also has developed a program with Kevin O'Brien, a Philadelphia designer known for his scarves and fabrics made from burnout velvets. The Kevin O'Brien collection of decorative fabrics will interpret those designs. There are seven patterns and 25 skus priced from $13 to $25.
