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Creating a design concept for a kitchen or remodeling an outdated bathroom requires an understanding of the products and services available to those looking to undertake such a project. The ProSource Podcast breaks down the home remodeling industry and highlights the merchandise and experience that it requires to achieve your vision. Join ProSource Director of Digital Marketing Content Kevin Devine, as he speaks with those who facilitate the ideal project and offer valuable information for how to choose the ideal products and services that transform your ideas into reality.
Welcome back to The ProSource Podcast,
everybody.
Today on the podcast
I'm excited to welcome TM Nuckols,
president of The Dixie Group's
residential division, on
as we dive into the world of soft surface
style.
If you're not aware,
The Dixie Group oversees two of the brands
that we're going to be spotlighting today
Masland and Fabrica.
Both of these brands are known
for their elevated design, strong color,
point of views, and leadership
in the premium carpet and rug space.
These brands continue to shape
how trade pros bring warmth, personality,
and balance into their projects.
I. Thank you so much for coming on
today, team.
Thank you very much for having me, Molly.
I'm excited to get to talk to you.
It's not every day that we get to have
president of the company on,
so I'm sure our listeners
are super excited to even
just get to know you
before we dive into both of these brands.
So to kick things off, can you just share
a bit about yourself and maybe your day
to day role with the Dixie group
and how you got to where you're at now?
I'll be happy to.
Molly,
thank you again for the opportunity.
You know, I've I've been in The fiber
and flooring sort of carpet
world for it's hard to believe it's
actually been about 36 years now.
Started with DuPont.
I was in the fiber business
with DuPont for a long time.
DuPont sold the fiber business,
including the stained master business, off
to Coke Industries, and we operated under
the investor name for several years.
So all in all, my DuPont invested
time was about 27 or 28 years,
and I joined the Dixie Group
back in 2017.
So I've been here a little over
nine years now.
Again, it's hard to believe it's
been that long, but it has.
And I'm I'm very blessed to be part
of a great company here at Dixie.
I love this company.
We have a great, great culture.
Our leadership
is an exceptional leadership
team wonderful people
that have the opportunity to work with.
And I'm really blessed.
You know, my responsibility
really is the sales, marketing
and product development organization.
We have a super strong team.
Very blessed to to work here
and work alongside a lot of great people.
So very thankful for It's awesome to hear
and I can vouch for that too.
Every time
we've worked with the Dixie group
on, I'm on the marketing team
for Pro Source.
So anytime we've worked with you guys
on anything marketing related,
it's been great.
You guys have been a great partner
for all of our showrooms as well.
For any trade pros
that might be listening to this podcast,
and they're not familiar
with both of these brands.
Maybe they haven't even heard of them
if that's if that can happen.
How would you describe Masland
and Fabrica product offering right now?
Yeah, sure.
I mean, so Masland and Fabrica, you know,
first of all, their highest in brands
within the company and the entire company
is kind of focused on the mid
to high end part of the
the residential flooring market,
Mazda and Fabryka,
very much at the high end of that space.
Both are high end brands.
Masland and Fabrica are both doing
very well even through the downturn,
as we've seen sort of the carpet segment,
residential carpet segment
kind of peaked in 2021.
It's kind of been declining
since then and a lot of reasons for that.
Obviously there's a lot going on.
Interface have been very high.
Home resales have been very depressed.
New construction has been impacted off
and on.
Again, it's a lot of factors, a lot of
geopolitical factors in play as well.
So a lot of consumers are just pushing
the pause button and the carpet.
The residential carpet market
is certainly felt that
we've been very fortunate to operate
at the higher end of the market,
which has done better, and our Masland
and Fabrica brands have actually done
very well given the market conditions
that we've been playing in.
So we feel good about that.
A couple of years ago, actually,
about 3 or 4 years ago,
we expanded our decorative line
in our Masland fabric brand.
So we're used to have mouse and wool
and fabric wool.
We sort of rebranded re invented those
maybe a little bit into 1866
by Masland and Decor by Fabrica,
and we really just expanded
the assortment of content,
the product assortment there,
instead of being so focused only on
internally tufted wools,
sort of open those categories
up to a lot of imported products
and handmade products.
Hand loomed hand tufted wire,
Wilton construction, a lot of other
unique constructions that we didn't have
in our portfolio at that time.
So that has really helped.
Those two decorative lines
turned into growth engines for us.
And again, very, very happy
to have Masland and Fabrica
as part of our portfolio.
They perform very well
through the downturn and looking forward
to better days for sure,
but feel good about where we are.
At the same I'm a big believer
that usually what comes down goes back up
eventually, right?
So it's a cyclical business.
Yeah, yeah.
And everything's very trendy.
You know, I personally love carpet.
I think that it's very warm
and it just adds like a level of comfort
to a place it's harder to clean than
a wood or hardwood flooring or vinyl.
But I know with carpet too,
you can really have a good time
playing around with the color of carpet.
And you guys have built such a reputation
around color and design.
How would you describe
your approach to color
and how it's evolved over the past
few years?
Yeah. So great. Great question.
Thank you for bringing this up.
Because the residential carpet segment
has really become
a virtual sea of sameness.
It's really been driven by a movement
toward solution dyed primarily polyester.
But solution yarns
which have a lot of neutrals.
And over the past 10 to 15 years,
solution out polyester has certainly grown
more than any other fiber in the
in the residential space.
So we see color
as a way of differentiating,
excuse me, differentiating ourselves
in that space in that market.
You know, there's no one else
really talking about color right now.
And we feel like we are uniquely qualified
or certainly the most qualified
to kind of step in and fill that,
that sort of void in the marketplace.
I think this is true
for a couple of reasons.
Number one, our main building block
as a carpet manufacturer is white Diable
nylon and white dial nylon allows us to
tough the carpet before color is applied
and apply the color on an order
by order basis after the carpet is tufted.
If you have a solution dyed yarn.
Once you tucked it into carpet,
that's the color that role of carpets
always going to be.
With a white
nylon, you can tough the role of carpet.
It's it's uncolored at this point.
And when you get an order
for a certain amount of yards or,
you know, certain roll size,
then we can die the role of that color
and use that to fill that order
and then keep the balance on the shelf,
wait for the next order to come in.
So it gives us more flexibility in color
and lets us create these long,
beautiful color lines
that really set Masland and Fabrica apart.
the white nylon toolkit of fibers
that we have at our disposal
gives us the opportunity
to really blend colors together,
and our blend fibers together
that create coloration effects.
And the final product.
And what do I mean by this?
I'm talking about deep dye and light dye
sort of combined together
to create a tonal effect.
Or there could be other accent yarns
or different luster
that we use to create
just just different looks in the product.
And that really helps us, number one,
from a coloration effect.
But number two,
it helps us from a design effect.
So it really enhances
the design of these products that
we're able to put into our Masland
and Fabrica brands.
Yeah, absolutely.
I think when people think of color,
because color is super trendy right now,
people are trying to get their spaces
to be colorful.
People think of maybe cabinets
when they're talking about color.
I feel like people
don't think too much about carpet,
but it's such a impactful way
to add color to your space.
And like you mentioned, the two tone,
the two tonal color variations you can do
that can make your space very cool
like no one else probably has.
And I just want to make sure that's
your Step into color campaign, right?
So let's step into color
really was a campaign that that we,
sort of launched 2 or 3 years ago.
And it was really what we were trying to
capture is the essence of what
differentiates us in the marketplace.
And so we talked about different ideas,
and we kind of landed on Step into Color
because no, again, as I mentioned, no
one is talking about color in residential.
And color is a huge factor.
Maybe the most important factor,
quite honestly, when you think about home
decor, it's all about coordinating
and complementing
what else is in that home.
And so we're able to offer a color,
story and color capability
that others do not offer.
And not every consumer
is going to be interested
in a certain shade of blue or certain,
you know, green or something like that.
But some are.
And we're here to serve those consumers,
make sure they can get the color
that they want.
So, you know, step into
color is all about just
is is recognizing that color is important.
And we're the place between Masland
and Fabbrica in particular,
where the manufacturer to go to
when you have that customer
who's looking for a particular color,
we have a custom color capability,
which is sort of also plays
into step into Color.
It's a pretty easy process,
a pretty quick process as well.
It's not difficult at all.
And again,
not everybody's going to use it.
Not every, you know, our long color lines
with Masland and Paprika,
I mean, most of the time they're going
to have the right color in there.
I mean you've got 32, 36, 40, 50 colors
in some of these.
These product are usually they can find
the right color, but if they can't
and they want a particular shade of blue
or any, any color,
we can actually match that color
with our white diable nylon process.
And it's again, it's a pretty easy
and pretty quick process. And
again, with nobody out
there sort of talking about color, it's
just another way that we can kind
of set ourselves apart in the marketplace.
Yeah,
I feel like everyone wants customization
in today's world,
and I feel like it really brings that.
And especially I mean, even if they're not
going with these vibrant colors,
having a specific ideas
of specific neutral colors, right?
I mean, you mentioned there's
so many different options you guys have,
so it's probably likely
they're going to be able
to find it already,
but if not, they have that opportunity.
Are you seeing trade pros continue
to dive into color
for residential
or are you seeing them stay with neutral?
Or is it 50 over 50 still?
Have you seen any.
Well I mean the that
yeah I mean it's a good question.
The reality is I mean neutral
is going to win the day most of the time.
Yeah. Safe.
That's just I mean, that's just
just kind of how it is.
I mean, and even home decor in general,
most of the time a nice neutral
things are warming now.
So more beige than gray, I would say,
but a nice neutral
is going to going to occupy
most of the colorations in a home.
However, there are things like color
drenching going on right now,
which is a trend where the consumer is
kind of making everything
in that particular room
sort of a version of the same color.
Maybe it's blue, maybe it's green, maybe
it's something different and that requires
something different
besides a neutral shade
in terms of the carpet
or rug that goes in there.
And so there are these pockets of color
where it's not neutral.
The other thing I would add here
is that a lot of our Maslen
and fabric business involves a designer.
It's not an insignificant percentage of,
of our sales in those brands
that ultimately include a designer.
And when a designer gets involved,
the consumer tends
to become more comfortable
moving toward more confidence
and decorating with color,
maybe
more than they would be on their own,
because the designer has the ability
to help them be comfortable and visualize
what the end product
is going to look like,
so they're more bold and confident
in working with color in that scenario.
That makes sense.
You just mentioned rugs.
I know both of these brands are
a big designation for area rugs as well.
What sets your rugs program
apart from others in the market?
Yeah. Great question.
I would say our two things one, our
our content and our design capability are
what sets us apart.
Rugs.
There's lots and lots of rug programs
out there.
Lots of cut and bind, cut and surge,
hand surge, machine surge microsurgery.
There's there's
there's a lot of that out there.
However, between Masland and Fabrica,
with all of our nylon products,
with all of our decorative products,
we have 215 to 220
probably more carpet styles, not SKUs.
That's actually just carpet styles.
And then you look at however many colors
we have in each style,
and it's a huge number carpet SKUs
that we have to work with to create.
Right. Not to mention custom color. Right.
So we have a lot of content
that we can use to create rugs.
And I think that is one thing
that really sets us apart.
And the other thing
I mentioned was our design capability.
And we have
Not only designers who design our
our carpet product offering,
we actually have a dedicated rug designer
who works with us, who is able to create
truly custom
area rugs that can be made into whatever
design can be imagined, whatever colors
can be imagined as ability
to put that together into a final package.
And that that becomes
a really interesting part of our business.
custom fabrication. Absolutely.
A lot of people can do that.
We have a lot of content
and a lot of great design resources
that help kind of set us apart
in that marketplace.
Absolutely.
I feel like
if anyone listening is not any pros
listening that are not fully leveraging
custom rugs from
you all, there are a lot of opportunities
they might be missing.
For example, we talked about this earlier
in the episode,
but you said carpet soft surface
sales are declining a little bit.
Well, that's usually because,
you know, hardwood or another
hard surface is taking the forefront
and trends.
However,
people are still wanting that warmth
and the comfort
that carpet brings a way to combat that,
you know, that want is suggesting,
hey, here's an area rug for your space
that say you want to change it
in a couple of years.
It's way it's easier to do that, right
with custom rugs.
Are there any other opportunities
that pros listening here to
this podcast might be missing
if they're not doing this?
I think that, you know, hard surface
today.
Let's say it occupies 65% of the home.
That's a that's a rough average.
I mean, our surface has grown.
It now is the main flooring
type used throughout the main,
the common areas of the home
and that type of thing.
So as that has grown, the consumer misses
that softness, misses that comfort, misses
that quietness, that carpet provides.
And so but she loves the look of her hard
surface floors too right.
She really loves that look.
So what's the answer?
Is a custom size
or a custom shape area rug
that looks great in her home.
And, you know, pretty much every time
when the consumer puts hard
surface in his or her home,
they're going to put an area rug down.
I mean, it's going to happen
sooner or later.
It's going to probably sooner than later.
And, you know, area rugs
help provide that that softness,
that quietness and that comfort factor.
But they still get
to see the hardwood floors.
And if you know, if you think about
the right area rug, the right shape,
or the right size, that perfectly fits
that room, that's a very cool look.
That's a very unique that many consumers,
I'm convinced, don't even realize
they have the opportunity to do that.
If it perfectly follows
the lines of the wall
or the shape of the room, and they can
still see their hard surface, but yet
they have a perfectly colored, perfectly
sized area rug to complement that.
That's a really neat sort of home
decor opportunity,
and I think there's a lot of opportunity
to do more and more of that.
And I think the more trade pros
that that, you know,
start doing that type of thing,
I think the more and more it's
going to lead to to that being done
throughout the marketplace.
I completely agree,
and especially the custom sizing
that is very helpful to when you're in
spaces that are tricky to navigate,
but you need to add something like an area
rugged that's very valuable
to know that you can get your rugs custom
sized as well as the color on those.
Absolutely.
When it comes to area rugs,
what are some of your favorite styles
or collections
that that are either from Fabrica or.
Well, I mean, gosh, there's so many.
It's so it's so hard to kind of pick.
I mean, we,
we have great selling, you know, carpet
styles and Fabrica and Masland
you know, in Masland
a couple that really come to mind for me,
one would be a style called pedigree.
Pedigree is it's a beautiful product.
It's a very much
a linen type of look and a pattern.
It's got a wonderful hand.
It's a nice thick carpet,
heavy face weight, nice hands
actually made with envision solution
nylon.
I know we've talked a lot about color.
This happens to be made with solution
nylon, but it's a great
which is great from a performance
standpoint.
It's got the durability and the built
in stain resistance and all of that,
but just makes a wonderful,
wonderful product.
That's one of our best best sellers.
In fact,
our best seller in Masland is pedigree.
You know, another one that comes to mind
I would point people to is one called
Windermere.
Windermere is a beautiful product.
It's one that it's as close
as we have come to creating
a hand loomed or a hand woven visual
in a machine tufted product.
So you think about these beautiful visuals
that we import for a decorative program,
and they are beautiful.
Trying to create that hand limbed
look in a machine tufted
item is very tricky,
but we've been able to find the right
machine and the right combination of yarns
that has allowed us to do that.
And Windermere is as close as we've come.
And Windermere was launched
last year.
It's a beautiful, beautiful style
and it is.
It's selling very, very well.
It's very high in style,
very high end look.
But it's great for wall to wall
and certainly makes a wonderful area rug.
And it's one of those it's
a nylon product.
It can be, you know, custom color.
From a Fabbrica standpoint I would have
to say two things come to mind.
Number one, we have a fantastic color
point collection.
Products like Barcelona, Ithaca,
gosh, Cirrus is one.
There's a brand new one that has
just come out or is coming out this year.
It's called Tattersall,
but it's a way that we combine
yarns and fibers together in these color
point patterns that create stunning
looks and beautiful, beautiful products.
And so those come to mind.
And then our fabric cut
piles are almost legendary.
I mean, you have products like Shea,
some call it Chez, right?
Cheesy, but it's pronounced Shea.
And Shea has been out there for 40 years,
and it's still among our best selling,
you know, products, products like Madonna,
one that recently came out as luxe.
But these super luxury heavyweight
cut piles in fabric,
a lot of them were using the high luster,
very soft nylon.
Those are phenomenal sellers for us.
So it's so many great products
throughout those two lines.
But yeah,
those are a few that come to mind for me.
And I know that was a loaded question
because there is so many
that you could have just listed off here.
We could have done the whole episode
probably about just products
that you want to talk about.
But, you know, with those products,
I know we touched on a lot of the textures
and a lot of the styles from those
that are probably making them
your best sellers.
Are there any other styles, patterns,
anything else you see
trendy within the soft surface space
that listeners should be cautious about?
Yeah, sure.
Well, I think aware of,
you know, what we see trending.
First of all, if you think
about the residential carpet market today,
the consumer is shopping
or thinking about carpet,
you know, considering carpet
on a room by room basis.
So 15, 20 years ago, they were probably
thinking about carpet for the whole house.
Now they're thinking about carpet for
this room or that room or individual room.
So the notion of it's all got to be
the same.
Carpet is out the window.
That gives the consumer
the ultimate flexibility
to do something different
in the master bedroom
or the primary bedroom.
Excuse me, you know, to do something
unique in each of the different rooms
they're thinking about for carpet
that's opened up this
for a lot more use of pattern
and a lot more use of unique
and differentiated styles,
because it's not the same thing
running through the entire house.
what we see trending are patterns
and loops with interesting,
you know, visual effects using color.
And I mentioned earlier how we blend yarns
together to kind of create luster play
or die ability play and create those tonal
effects patterns, small scale patterns
that are very textural, very abstract,
in some cases are very popular.
But again, just the whole notion
that interesting visuals and carpet
are now much more in play than ever before
because of how the consumer's
thinking about carpet.
what is next for Masland and Fabrica?
Is there anything coming up
over the next year or two
that you're excited about
for either of these brands?
Well, we're always focused on really
trying to stay best in class,
and we have really great products
coming out here for 2026.
First ones have started hitting.
We'll continue to launch product
through the second quarter
and into the third quarter,
both in our sort of high
end nylon categories
as well as our decorative categories.
So looking forward to 27.
I mean, our team is already at work
putting concepts together
and we'll be finalizing those.
And again,
just trying to make sure we're developing
best in class product
with great color lines
and serving our customer base
because we need our customer
base to be successful
if we're going to be successful.
So we're doing all we can to
to make that And anyone listening,
if you want to get your hands
on some samples of these
soft surface products,
you can go into your local Pro
source wholesale showroom
and ask an account manager there.
Look around,
find the beautiful displays that are up.
However,
if anyone's just on their phone right now
and they want a quick look at any
of these products, where can they?
Where can they find
either of these brands? Yeah.
So great. Great question.
Our websites 100%.
So we have separate websites
for each of our brands, Bob Masland
as well as our other brands.
They can go and they can
can look at all of our products, their,
you know, close ups of each color
or room seeing visuals.
And they can actually also visualize
the product in their own room.
They can also order samples
of any of those colors, any of those,
you know, products right from the website.
So that's an opportunity
and certainly work with your pro source
teams, because pro source teams
have access to our dealer portal
and other tools that make it very easy
to do business with, you know, the Dixie
Group, Masland and Fabrica include.
Absolutely. And going off of that as well.
You can find these products
Pro Source Wholesale.
We have brand pages on our website
as well to learn more.
thank you so much for coming on.
Sharing a little bit more
about both Fabrica and Masland
We really appreciate your expertise
on both of these brands.
Okay.
Thank you very much, Molly. And thanks.
Thanks to all the pro groups out there
for for the business.
And we're here to help.
So let us know what we can do for you.
I.