New Twist In Carpet Production
Offers Hope For Mohair Growers

SONORA — Veteran mohair producers still wince to recall the days 20 some-odd years ago when the luxurious product of their hair goats was mired in a market depression so deep that paint rollers and carpeting were its most promising outlets.

The heady years of high fashion and precious fabrics that followed eventually dimmed those memories, but fashion is a fickle thing. Depression has returned, and once again the industry is struggling to find outlets, preferably ones with a more dependable base.

There’s no talk of paint rollers this time around, but the big news at the Mohair Council of America’s executive committee meeting here last week concerned another long-forgotten product — carpet.

There was a twist, however, and several observers felt that twist just might make the notion viable. Ironically, one of the limiting factors for mohair carpet the last time the industry tried to develop the market was cost. As depressed as mohair prices were then, the fiber was still relatively expensive compared to the emerging synthetics. That made it a luxury commodity with severely limited sales potential, a niche product unattractive to an industry dominated by massive mills that depended on volume runs.

And when mohair prices showed a little improvement, the carpet market was lost entirely.

Enter technology and entrepreneurship.

Featured speakers at last week’s meeting were Gerald Morrison and Steven Berger, partners in a Dalton, Ga. firm known as Modern Technologies Inc. Morrison and Berger specialize in refurbishing aging textile equipment and updating the obsolete machinery with computerized controls.

They aren’t textile people at all, Berger explained, "but we saw a lot of people making a lot of money using our equipment, so for the last four or five years we’ve been making carpet and keeping some of our secrets to ourselves."

Their only hope for success in an industry where Morrison said 15 percent of the mills are two and a half to three billion dollar per year companies and control 85 percent of the market was to carve out a niche. They found it in some of their own refurbished machinery — "sample makers" that can be easily retooled and programmed to turn out small lots of carpet their mammoth competitors won’t touch.

Following the lead of other small mills, which found their own niches in natural fibers, Berger and Morrison began using wool. That led them to mohair, and a pilot project funded by the Mohair Council.

"We’re excited about this ‘new’ fiber," Morrison said, even though "we haven’t gotten where we’re going to be because initially the yarn didn’t fit the equipment."

They were using an existing supply of yarn spun for another purpose, and eventually combined several of the fine strands to create a bulkier fiber suitable for carpeting.

Mohair, he added, "is superior to any fiber we’ve ever used," and lends itself to use in any "tufted" fabric, including upholstery and wall coverings.

Modern Technologies’ immediate focus, however, is on aircraft carpeting. Their "sample maker" machinery, Berger explained, is capable of making carpet as narrow as 30 inches, ideal for aircraft aisles. Such high-traffic areas, he noted, lend themselves to mohair because it "wears like iron," and outlasts even wool.

In addition, aircraft carpet must be fire-proof — which mohair is — and cost is no practical object.

"One hundred to one thousand dollars a square yard is not an unusual price for aircraft carpet," Berger pointed out, a cost that really doesn’t amount to much when compared to the multi-million dollar price of the airplane itself."

The pair envisions the use of mohair or mohair and wool blend carpet in costly corporate jets and commercial airliners as well. In the latter case, the carpet must be removed occasionally for cleaning, meaning two carpets per plane.

Their biggest selling point beyond mohair’s durability, beauty and natural fire resistance, Berger said, is the flexibility they can offer in colors, patterns and weaves.

"In an aircraft," he explained, "you may only need 30 feet of carpet, and no one (else) is willing to offer custom colors, etc., even though the buyers are willing to pay."

Berger said their computerized equipment can also add corporate logos, insignia, names or other custom touches to carpet, an added draw to commercial airlines and corporate clients alike.

The pair were to exhibit their wares this week at a national aircraft trade show, where they hoped to make direct contact with potential customers. Their plan is to make and sell carpet on order, avoiding the risk of speculation and the drain of middlemen.

"We’re breaking every rule there’s ever been," he quipped.