CCI Showcasing U.S. Cotton to Global Home Furnishings Retailers

Cotton Council International (CCI) is seeking to boost American cotton usage by giving overseas home furnishings retailers a look at this nation’s world-class cotton infrastructure

October 10, 2001
Contact: Marjory Walker
(901) 274-9030

MEMPHIS -- Cotton Council International (CCI) is seeking to boost American cotton usage by giving overseas home furnishings retailers a look at this nation’s world-class cotton infrastructure.

CCI, the National Cotton Council's export promotions arm, is hosting executives representing seven retailers from six countries in Asia, Europe and Latin America during the 2001 COTTON USA International Home Furnishing Retailers Tour.

Vaughn Jordan, CCI's international program director, Washington, DC, said the tour’s participants represent some $110 million in sales turnover "providing U.S. cotton the potential to expand its global markets for bed and bath products." The participants sell a wide variety of brands including Calvin Klein, Ralph Lauren, Cannon, Laura Ashley, ELLE, Fleuresse, Croscill, Fieldcrest, Royal Velvet, Newmark Rug, Dan River, Thomaston Mills and WestPoint Stevens.

"This event provides CCI a tremendous opportunity to increase these retailers’ confidence in U.S. cotton’s value chain," Jordan said. "They will get to see U.S. textile manufacturers’ commitment to excellence and meet with U.S. home fashion product sellers to review their new collections."

The October 13-20 trek will follow cotton's value chain from a cotton farm and gin in Arkansas to a leading textile mill in South Carolina, to the showrooms of New York.

Included in the tour are stops at William Weaver Farms and Crittenden Gin in eastern Arkansas; the USDA cotton classing office and the National Cotton Council headquarters in Memphis; Springs Industries in Fort Mill, SC; Cotton Incorporated’s headquarters in Raleigh, NC; as well as several leading U.S. home furnishing manufacturers in New York.

Tour participants include: Leonard Minetto, Riley – Comercial ECCSA, Chile; Maria Ostaiza, Almacenes de Prati, Eduador; Katharina Saulich and Vera Kottlorz, Betten Rid GmbH, Germany; Dina Nathusius, Cemaco, SA, Guatemala; Ju-Jung Lo, Pao Soung Co., Ltd., and Alexander Lee, Vic-Voyage, Ltd., both in Taiwan.

Joining Ms. Jordan on the tour are Edelgard Baumann, CCI consultant, Germany; and Washington-based CCI staff Sabrina Yun, international program coordinator; and Nancy Engelhard, program manager, Latin America.