Alain Duval of Victor Innovatex Purchases Quaker
December 6, 2007
ST. GEORGES, Quebec—Victor Innovative Textiles (VIT), sees a potential of $50 million in the residential jacquard fabric business utilizing the people, equipment, technology and intellectual property that was previously Quaker Fabrics Corp., according to undisclosed textile industry sources.
Alain Duval, the 40-something, third generation family owner and president of Canadian-based contract panel and upholstery fabrics mill, Victor Innovatex (VI), was behind the purchase of Quaker, the Fall River, Mass. company. Few American mill owners are familiar with Duval, and many of his customers have referred to him as "shy.'' Yet they also say his company has several major things going for it, including deep pockets and a history of success in the industry. His domestic competitors say his actions will prop up the remaining yarn suppliers in the upholstery business. Duval refused to speak to Fabrics & Furnishings International or confirm any numbers specific to the Quaker purchase costs and VIT sales projections.
With the acquisition of Quaker's assets, VIT has the potential to become an important player in the U.S. residential fabric business with combined sales of $100 million within five to seven years, according to industry estimates. VI's current business is about 70 percent panel cloth (with customers like Steelcase and Haworth) and 30 percent seating fabric. Eco Intelligence® is VI's successful contract brand of recycled polyester which has also boosted their sales and reputation.
According to marketing coordinator, Melanie Bursey, one of the main goals at VIT will be to make everything as efficient as possible. "We will work to optimize LEED points and maximize energy efficiency," she said. "Our plant here upholds strict environmental standards. Fall River is a brand new facility with top-of-the-line equipment. It's an investment. We want it to be state of the art. We're looking to transfer the capabilities of Eco Intelligence® to the residential markets. We're looking to share that brand but I'm not sure of the plans for the other brands at the moment; it might be easier to transfer over that knowledge and brand know-how into Quaker's products."
According to Bursey, VI (with a weaving facility in St. Georges and a yarn spinning mill in Beauceville) is part of the Victor Group which also includes Victor Woolens (a woolen apparel fabric producer in St. Victor run by Alain's brother, Richard), and now VIT in Fall River.
"In terms of management, VIT will be a separate company," said Bursey. "As time goes on, we hope to get some synergies from the two companies (VIT and VI), so we're hoping to gain leverage from there as well as from our experience and marketing. Step one is to start operations in Fall River and make sure the customers are being serviced and then we can develop a substantial plan."
With new competition from the expanding Canadian company, U.S. mills like Valdese Weavers will have to approach the market aggressively. Valdese has done so since its acquisition of Circa 1801 – the company Valdese won at auction over Duval – adding new production and already seeing a return on investments from the Circa purchase. While Duval lost his bid to purchase Circa, he was the successful bidder for Quaker along with Boston-based liquidator, The Gordon Brothers Group. It is estimated that Duval paid $11 million and will spend an estimated $4-$5 million to continue with Quaker's consolidation of 348 looms, management, production and administrative personnel into the rented 600,000 square-foot-plant with 60,000 square feet of office space in Fall River. At $16 million, that's about the same price Valdese paid for Circa, one industry member guessed. "Duval fell in love with the Circa operation and never got it out of his system," he said. Bursey would not confirm these figures, but said, "We only bought what was needed for our capacity. Gordon Brothers will sell what other things they bought on the open market."
Duval has quickly assembled a top design and development team but word has not been released about who will manage the Fall River operation, which, according to Bursey, should start production in early November. One supplier commented that Fall River has an excellent workforce and with the acquisition, VIT now has the equipment to make the novelty yarns that made Quaker so successful in the years before its downfall.
"There have been about 80-85 people hired from Quaker and other companies," said Bursey. "We are not promising everybody their jobs back, but over the next three to four years we will be hiring more and more people on an 'as-needed' basis. It has been said many times within the company that it will be a continuous effort to hire people every year."
Included in the rehires are Duncan Whitehead, and Bea Spires. Whitehead is the technical genius behind the Quaker Global™ Line, produced by China-based Zhongwang. Zhongwang will continue to supply VI with Chinese-made product and president Yang Lin Shan is pleased with the arrangement because he was successfully selling Quaker designs in the world market.
Spires, Quaker's former VP of design has hired six of her design staff back to work with the Victor operation. They include Jordan Sweeting, Lloyd Felix, Pam Fonger, Nancy Machado and Dawn Stopka – the former vice president of design for the now defunct Joan Fabrics. Victor met with former Quaker production at White's Restaurant on October 24 to talk about rehiring.
It's just a question of time before the mill starts cranking out the Quaker product.
Onlookers comment that the Duval family has a great passion for textiles. Their background in textiles can be traced back to 1947, when grandfather, William Duval, founded a wool waste operation that evolved into the apparel and specialty fabrics company, Victor Woolens (referred to also as Victor Forstmann since its 1999 purchase of U.S.-based textile manufacturer, The Forstmann Company.)
Many still question why the Duvals or anyone else would invest money in the American textile business. "The Quaker furniture business just died and restarting it will be like starting from scratch," said one source. Quaker had approximately $120 million in sales when Bank of America pulled the plug on the company, including a $20 million panel fabrics business which has been gobbled up by several mills including VI and Valdese.
Catering primarily to the American fabric jobber is the key to VI's successful contract business and Duval hopes this expertise will work wonders in the residential market as well. VI has an open stock, yarn-dyed line in contract with two-week delivery and also makes a line of proprietary piece-dyed products developed closely with the jobber at its New York design studio.
One of VI's key accounts is US-based jobber that was left with 1,200 skus of Quaker fabric in book form. With the newly-formed VIT, such patterns can continue to be made for such customers and other jobbers who were left holding the bag for Quaker patterns. The furniture business where Quaker left a void is not as easy because many customers have already replaced the product, leaving VIT a slim chance short-term to rebuild the furniture business enjoyed by its predecessor.
"There are a lot of patterns that were discontinued and a lot of customers pulled out before Quaker went down," said Bursey. "All the designs are being reviewed and we are trying to maintain the customer base. It's my understanding that the customers are number one and we'll try our best to meet their needs and concentrate on developing new things and starting fresh."
"Duval will have to put some meat and potatoes on his table," said one industry expert. "The book jobber is like running a delicatessen. You slice the bologna and salami and then you order another piece when it's gone. Jobber business isn't enough. You get the equivalent of four yards a week per pattern from the jobber for each design and for that you have to offer five years of continuity. Duval will have to win back some furniture business to keep his mill going."
Sue Huff, general manager of Knoll Textiles described VI as a "phenomenal" supplier and in general, the company has an excellent reputation among its competitors in Canada, the U.S. and with the jobber/customer.
VI now has additional resources in America it can use to produce contract product.
Based on the slipping U.S. dollar, Duval also has an option to offset potential losses due to Canadian dollar purchases of raw materials and declining fabric selling prices. This dramatic currency change for the first time in 30 years also helped to undermine the plans of DeBall velvet, the Montreal-based velvet mill that recently filed for bankruptcy.
"That is a problem everybody is facing in Canada," said Bursey. "Everybody is feeling the effects of that. We have to concentrate on giving the best service for our customers. You can't change a dollar so we work with what we have."
Alain Duval, the 40-something, third generation family owner and president of Canadian-based contract panel and upholstery fabrics mill, Victor Innovatex (VI), was behind the purchase of Quaker, the Fall River, Mass. company. Few American mill owners are familiar with Duval, and many of his customers have referred to him as "shy.'' Yet they also say his company has several major things going for it, including deep pockets and a history of success in the industry. His domestic competitors say his actions will prop up the remaining yarn suppliers in the upholstery business. Duval refused to speak to Fabrics & Furnishings International or confirm any numbers specific to the Quaker purchase costs and VIT sales projections.
With the acquisition of Quaker's assets, VIT has the potential to become an important player in the U.S. residential fabric business with combined sales of $100 million within five to seven years, according to industry estimates. VI's current business is about 70 percent panel cloth (with customers like Steelcase and Haworth) and 30 percent seating fabric. Eco Intelligence® is VI's successful contract brand of recycled polyester which has also boosted their sales and reputation.
According to marketing coordinator, Melanie Bursey, one of the main goals at VIT will be to make everything as efficient as possible. "We will work to optimize LEED points and maximize energy efficiency," she said. "Our plant here upholds strict environmental standards. Fall River is a brand new facility with top-of-the-line equipment. It's an investment. We want it to be state of the art. We're looking to transfer the capabilities of Eco Intelligence® to the residential markets. We're looking to share that brand but I'm not sure of the plans for the other brands at the moment; it might be easier to transfer over that knowledge and brand know-how into Quaker's products."
According to Bursey, VI (with a weaving facility in St. Georges and a yarn spinning mill in Beauceville) is part of the Victor Group which also includes Victor Woolens (a woolen apparel fabric producer in St. Victor run by Alain's brother, Richard), and now VIT in Fall River.
"In terms of management, VIT will be a separate company," said Bursey. "As time goes on, we hope to get some synergies from the two companies (VIT and VI), so we're hoping to gain leverage from there as well as from our experience and marketing. Step one is to start operations in Fall River and make sure the customers are being serviced and then we can develop a substantial plan."
With new competition from the expanding Canadian company, U.S. mills like Valdese Weavers will have to approach the market aggressively. Valdese has done so since its acquisition of Circa 1801 – the company Valdese won at auction over Duval – adding new production and already seeing a return on investments from the Circa purchase. While Duval lost his bid to purchase Circa, he was the successful bidder for Quaker along with Boston-based liquidator, The Gordon Brothers Group. It is estimated that Duval paid $11 million and will spend an estimated $4-$5 million to continue with Quaker's consolidation of 348 looms, management, production and administrative personnel into the rented 600,000 square-foot-plant with 60,000 square feet of office space in Fall River. At $16 million, that's about the same price Valdese paid for Circa, one industry member guessed. "Duval fell in love with the Circa operation and never got it out of his system," he said. Bursey would not confirm these figures, but said, "We only bought what was needed for our capacity. Gordon Brothers will sell what other things they bought on the open market."
Duval has quickly assembled a top design and development team but word has not been released about who will manage the Fall River operation, which, according to Bursey, should start production in early November. One supplier commented that Fall River has an excellent workforce and with the acquisition, VIT now has the equipment to make the novelty yarns that made Quaker so successful in the years before its downfall.
"There have been about 80-85 people hired from Quaker and other companies," said Bursey. "We are not promising everybody their jobs back, but over the next three to four years we will be hiring more and more people on an 'as-needed' basis. It has been said many times within the company that it will be a continuous effort to hire people every year."
Included in the rehires are Duncan Whitehead, and Bea Spires. Whitehead is the technical genius behind the Quaker Global™ Line, produced by China-based Zhongwang. Zhongwang will continue to supply VI with Chinese-made product and president Yang Lin Shan is pleased with the arrangement because he was successfully selling Quaker designs in the world market.
Spires, Quaker's former VP of design has hired six of her design staff back to work with the Victor operation. They include Jordan Sweeting, Lloyd Felix, Pam Fonger, Nancy Machado and Dawn Stopka – the former vice president of design for the now defunct Joan Fabrics. Victor met with former Quaker production at White's Restaurant on October 24 to talk about rehiring.
It's just a question of time before the mill starts cranking out the Quaker product.
Onlookers comment that the Duval family has a great passion for textiles. Their background in textiles can be traced back to 1947, when grandfather, William Duval, founded a wool waste operation that evolved into the apparel and specialty fabrics company, Victor Woolens (referred to also as Victor Forstmann since its 1999 purchase of U.S.-based textile manufacturer, The Forstmann Company.)
Many still question why the Duvals or anyone else would invest money in the American textile business. "The Quaker furniture business just died and restarting it will be like starting from scratch," said one source. Quaker had approximately $120 million in sales when Bank of America pulled the plug on the company, including a $20 million panel fabrics business which has been gobbled up by several mills including VI and Valdese.
Catering primarily to the American fabric jobber is the key to VI's successful contract business and Duval hopes this expertise will work wonders in the residential market as well. VI has an open stock, yarn-dyed line in contract with two-week delivery and also makes a line of proprietary piece-dyed products developed closely with the jobber at its New York design studio.
One of VI's key accounts is US-based jobber that was left with 1,200 skus of Quaker fabric in book form. With the newly-formed VIT, such patterns can continue to be made for such customers and other jobbers who were left holding the bag for Quaker patterns. The furniture business where Quaker left a void is not as easy because many customers have already replaced the product, leaving VIT a slim chance short-term to rebuild the furniture business enjoyed by its predecessor.
"There are a lot of patterns that were discontinued and a lot of customers pulled out before Quaker went down," said Bursey. "All the designs are being reviewed and we are trying to maintain the customer base. It's my understanding that the customers are number one and we'll try our best to meet their needs and concentrate on developing new things and starting fresh."
"Duval will have to put some meat and potatoes on his table," said one industry expert. "The book jobber is like running a delicatessen. You slice the bologna and salami and then you order another piece when it's gone. Jobber business isn't enough. You get the equivalent of four yards a week per pattern from the jobber for each design and for that you have to offer five years of continuity. Duval will have to win back some furniture business to keep his mill going."
Sue Huff, general manager of Knoll Textiles described VI as a "phenomenal" supplier and in general, the company has an excellent reputation among its competitors in Canada, the U.S. and with the jobber/customer.
VI now has additional resources in America it can use to produce contract product.
Based on the slipping U.S. dollar, Duval also has an option to offset potential losses due to Canadian dollar purchases of raw materials and declining fabric selling prices. This dramatic currency change for the first time in 30 years also helped to undermine the plans of DeBall velvet, the Montreal-based velvet mill that recently filed for bankruptcy.
"That is a problem everybody is facing in Canada," said Bursey. "Everybody is feeling the effects of that. We have to concentrate on giving the best service for our customers. You can't change a dollar so we work with what we have."
