Interface
Carpet
Interface,
Inc.
is the
world’s largest manufacturer of modular carpet, which it
markets under the InterfaceFLOR, FLOR and Bentley Prince
Street brands. Bentley
Prince Street also is a leader in the designer-quality
broadloom carpet market. Interface is committed to
sustainability and to doing business in ways that
minimize the impact on the
environment.
About
Interface
Carpet
Interface, Inc.,
began in 1973 when Ray C. Anderson, currently Chairman of
the Board, recognized the need for flexible
floorcoverings for the modern office environment.
Anderson led a joint venture between Carpets
International Plc. (CI), a British company, and a group
of American investors to produce and market modular
soft-surfaced floorcoverings.
On its first day of operation, the new
company had only 15 employees, including Anderson, and faced
significant challenges from sharply rising petrochemical costs,
a key raw material in the carpet industry. CI’s advanced
cutting and bonding technology sustained the company and
enabled it to meet the needs of the office building boom of the
mid-1970s. Modular carpet tiles grew in popularity and by 1978
Interface sales had reached $11 million. The company went
public in 1983.
Through acquisition, Interfaced
gained entry into the European and Middle Eastern markets, and
began to extend its core business to include woven broadloom
carpet products, specialty carpet-related chemical operations
and related office furnishings industries.
In 1987, the company’s name was
changed to Interface, Inc. With its acquisition of Heuga
Holdings B.V., one of the world’s oldest manufacturers of
carpet tiles, Interface became the undisputed world leader in
carpet tiles. A short time later, the company invested in
Prince Street Technologies, Ltd., a producer of upper-end
broadloom carpet now known as Bentley Prince Street, Inc. Over
the years, the company’s growth has been augmented by more than
50 acquisitions. It entered the residential market in 2003 with
the introduction of FLOR.
In the mid-1990s, Interface’s
Chairman and CEO Ray C. Anderson shifted the company’s
strategy, aiming to redirect its industrial practices to
include a focus on sustainability without sacrificing its
business goals. Anderson wrote a book entitled Mid-Course
Correction, in which he discussed his own awakening to
environmental concerns and presented a model for businesses to
achieve sustainability.
Since its founding, Interface has
grown into a billion-dollar corporation, named by
Fortune
as one of the “Most Admired
Companies in America” and the “100 Best Companies to Work For.”
It has diversified and globalized its businesses, with sales in
110 countries and manufacturing facilities on four continents
and is now the world’s leading producer of soft-surfaced
modular floorcoverings.
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