AN ALTERED LANDSCAPE.(floor care sector)
HFN: The Weekly Newspaper for the Home Furnishing Network, July, 2003 by Beatty, Gerry
Floor care is an industry in transition. It's safe to say this once-envied business is nearly unrecognizable from two years ago.
Already competitive, the intensity level escalated for mass pricing, destabilizing much of the step-up market as well. That squeezed margins, just as a softer economy sent unit sales downward. With cost-cutting and productivity such a priority, there were successive shifts last year to factories in China.
Partly in response to these conditions and partly because of other circumstances, there's been a series of executive shakeups not equaled in years, if ever. Leading companies thought to be impregnable suddenly are scrambling to understand the new industry and contend with a wave of fresh competitors.
What the...
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