CHATTANOOGA, TN--(MARKET WIRE)--Mar 17, 2008 -- Alliance Flooring, Inc., parent company of CarpetsPlus Color Tile®, Carpetland Color Tile and Floorco Direct to the Trade, recently held its 2008 Convention in Atlanta, February 23-26. The theme of the Convention was "Nextwork: Innovate in '08." Members were encouraged to focus on 13 action items to improve business and gain market share.

 
--  Merchandise AMERICAN-MADE and GREEN products in carpet & hard surface
    to differentiate their stores
--  Maximize consumer CREDIT for higher average tickets
--  Embrace new TECHNOLOGY for improved operating efficiency
--  Generate new business through main street COMMERCIAL
--  DIVERSIFY into new product categories to gain market share
--  Maximize the COLOR TILE BRAND to improve consumer confidence
--  Utilize new TRAINING resources to educate salespeople
--  Continue to ADVERTISE to reach new customers and generate store
    traffic
--  SIMPLIFY the buying process for consumers
--  Adopt a COST CONTROL culture
--  Employ RELATIONAL MARKETING to increase sales and customer loyalty
--  NETWORK best practices with other owners
--  Emphasize CarpetsPlus Color Tile STORE BRANDS to help maintain and
    increase bottom line

The overarching merchandising themes for the group were "green" hardwood and American-made products. Holding to these ideals, the two biggest introductions were hard surface companions to the group's well-established brands EcoChoice® and American Classics. EcoChoice Hardwood is a collection of superior hardwood flooring products that are both American-made and environmentally-responsible. These products use an engineered construction composed of an HDF fiberboard core with a real hardwood face veneer sourced from sustainably managed forests in the United States. The EcoChoice product requires less hardwood to produce than comparable solid or engineered floors, thereby conserving natural resources and creating less waste during production.

"We felt it was time to focus our efforts on strengthening our hard surface merchandising, beginning with hardwood," said Kevin Logue, vice president of marketing for Alliance Flooring. Building on their EcoChoice brand, the environmentally-friendly collection established last year, they added a hardwood collection at this year's convention. Logue continued, "We've had tremendous success with our EcoChoice brand in carpet, so adding a hard surface line was the next logical step."

Retailer of the Year Award Winners

 
-- Mark and Mary Ann Dougherty, Hoosier CarpetsPlus, Bloomington, IN
   -- CarpetsPlus Color Tile
-- Kevin Rose, Carpetland USA, Rockford, IL  -- Carpetland Color Tile
-- Wendy Werner, Floorco of Milwaukee, Floorco Business Owner of the
   Year -- Floorco

About Alliance Flooring, Inc.

CarpetsPlus Color Tile®, Carpetland Color Tile®, Floorco and Color Tile® Outlet are divisions of Alliance Flooring, Inc., a retail-licensing group representing more than 450 flooring retail locations across the United States. CarpetsPlus began with a philosophy that emphasized independent store ownership backed by the buying power of a national chain. Pairing the historic strength of Color Tile with the national resources of CarpetsPlus and Carpetland has created a national chain of premier floor covering design centers. www.allianceflooring.info, www.carpetspluscolortile.com, www.carpetlandusa.com, www.floorcodirect.com.

Logos and photos are available at http://www.allianceflooring.info/currentnews.aspx.

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