By Jennifer Quail
NEW YORK–Kasthall has opened its first U.S. showroom at the New York Design Center.
Executives at the company said, while Kasthall is already doing business in this country, it was time to create a larger presence here.
“The United States is the second biggest market for Kasthall,” said Simone Vingerhoets-Ziesmann, executive vice president of Kasthall USA Inc. “But we would like to get more of a contract business here.”
Vingerhoets-Ziesmann said approximately 80 percent of the company’s business in its home country of Sweden is contract.
“The reason for our success in contract is we have no limitations for size, color, [etc.],” she said, adding the company has even been called upon to match a scarf a designer brought in as a color sample.
To foster the growth of its American business, the company also plans to officially launch broadloom here at the International Contemporary Furniture Fair this month.
In its product line, Kasthall aims to combine the familiar with the unexpected and to modernize the traditional. In fact, the company has been known to glean inspiration from subjects as varied as churches, candy and actor Kevin Spacey. Greta, for example, is a new product built on the traditional flat woven carpets found in churches, but in vivid new color schemes. Another design’s florescent blooms are taken directly from the sketch the artist drew using highlighter pens.
Kasthall’s belief in kindness to the environment also should bode well in an American market suddenly in the throes of eco-friendly passion. The company is a longtime practitioner of green business methods and is certified according to the ISO 14001 standard as proof.
