Quaker Adds Muller, German Sales Office

November 30, -0001

Quaker Adds Muller, German Sales Office Como, Italy—Quaker Fabric Corp. in Fall River MA., (USA) has expanded its selling effort in Europe with the signing of Markus Muller, former jacquard mill owner and sales representative for Enzo Degli Angiuoni.

Muller joins the European sales team for Quaker which includes Mark Hacking in the UK. This is the first time that Quaker has had their own man on the European continent and this move is expected to dramatically increase its sales in Europe. "Our export sales are 18-20 percent of our total," said Tom Muzekari, vice president of sales & marketing for Quaker during Proposte. Quaker was showing at the Grand Hotel in Como.

"We're also setting up a special arrangement in Scandinavia. We're an international company based in the USA. We think we can do 30 percent of our business in export," he said. "We're pushing toward $70 million in export today with more to come."

Muller joined the Quaker selling team April 1 and brought along Henk Essink, Benelux agent for Quaker. Prior to joining Quaker, Muller sold his equipment to Andrew Heydasch, owner of Muller Zell in Zell, Oberfranken, Germany. Muller will now utilize his former Wuppertal based jacquard factory building, the Nuss Lucas Building to showcase Quaker's expanding ranges of fabrics in a showroom of 300 square meters. The lines now include Davol ($4-$7); Quaker ($5-$10) and Whittaker ($9-$28). Muller reportedly was generating substantial sales of Enzo Degli Angiuoni jacquards in his territory. He was doing so well in fact that Angiuoni replaced him with their own fulltime company paid sales representative. Such is the lot of the commissioned agent! Muller, based in Wuppertal, Germany will cover all of the German speaking areas for Quaker in addition to France, Finland, Poland and Benelux. Quaker also has sales offices in Dubai, Beirut, Johannesberg, Bombay, Singapore and Melbourne.

"Larry Leibenow (president & CEO) and Duncan Whitehead (Vice President, Manufacturing) know how to manage this business for the future," Muller said. "Their's is an amazing story. The facilities in Fall River are unique. They started with yarn manufacturing and followed it up with the best weaving and finishing in the world," Muller said.

He was equally enthusiastic about working with BeaSpires, Quaker's vice president of design. "Bea used to be a musician and now she is wonderful songs in the fabric," he laughed.

"What Quaker did in America is amazing and now we're building a team in Europe to have a similar success," he added. "You need specific designs and colorations in Europe to be successful." Addy Bois, international design director for Quaker is putting together the package for Muller that will sell in Europe.

"With Larry Leibenow, the customer is first. This company is offering a partnership with the sales representative. He built up an organization where the customer who wants a special design can get the sample in three or four days. We have the logistics to deliver in small quantities of all designs from over 400 looms, 40 million yards a year!"

Muller also said the dollar/Euro ratio has helped Quaker offer the best quality at a very reasonable price


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