“We are the dominant force in [the auto carpet replacement] market and have been ever since we began business,” says President Ken Howell (pictured).

At Auto Custom Carpets, product wear and tear is actually a good thing. The company manufactures replacement carpets, trunk and floor mats, sound deadeners and vacuum molded vinyl for the automotive industry. It offers 25,000 flooring applications for vehicles that date back to the late 1940s.

“We are the dominant force in our market and have been ever since we began business,” President Ken Howell says. “We are now in the 29th year of business, which also makes us the oldest molded carpet company. Our market share is around 70 percent.”

The company holds more than 200 licensing agreements to custom-embroider its mats for vehicles produced by automotive giants GM, Chrysler and Ford. Approximately 80 percent of the company’s revenues are generated by molded carpet sales, although floor mats are becoming one of the company’s fastest-growing product lines, Marketing Coordinator Julie Brothers says. The majority of its products are sold to aftermarket automotive companies including Long Motor Co., Ecklers and Year One.

“We are the world’s leading manufacturer of automotive replacement carpet,” Brothers says. “We have more than 25,000 applications of vehicles that we can mold carpet for.”

Entering E-commerce
But Auto Custom Carpets cannot simply rest on the fact that it holds a hefty percentage of the market share. Instead, Howell says, it plans to increase sales by spreading the word about its product.

“Since the majority of consumers are not aware that there is replacement carpet available for their cars and at a reasonable price, our goal for the future is to educate those consumers in order to reach a much broader market than we currently reach,” Howell notes. “We believe that with a more aggressive marketing strategy, we can almost double sales within five years.”

Part of that marketing strategy has included taking part in e-commerce. “One of the main things that we’ve done is work on our Web site to provide online ordering,” Brothers notes. In January, Auto Custom Carpets launched its online order-processing feature on its Web site where clients can place orders, request new product information and review product descriptions.

“Visitors are now getting a customer experience that far exceeds other companies in our industry,” Web designer Brad Williams says. “We received high praises from a lot of our major-account customers. Year One stated that of all the vendors they have, our Web site is by far the best organized and provides the most functionality of any of them.”
 
A Unique Process
The manufacturing process at Auto Custom Carpets is as unique as the vehicles it produces product for, Vice President of Manufacturing Tommy Stevens says. The company operates three production facilities in Anniston, Ala., and a location in Lafayette, Ga., where carpet is tufted and backed. In total, the company operates more than 496,000 square feet of production space.

The company claims it is the only supplier to offer all eight original carpet materials used in the automotive market including 80/20 loop, nylon, cut-pile, Gros Point, Daytona, Trinidad, Tuxedo and TruVette. At its Lafayette facility, carpet begins as white yarn that is tufted into a material known as Colback. The carpet is then sent to the dye house where it is custom colored into one of 250 different types of colors the company offers. After carpet is dyed, the appropriate backing is applied. Typically, latex is applied to cut-and-sew carpets and floor mats; polyurethane is placed on carpet used in the molding process. Customers can also upgrade the poly backing to mass backing, an ethylene vinyl acetate often used to further insulate the product and provide an additional layer for sound deadening.

The company is careful to produce carpets to match the original vehicle interior. Stevens explains that carpet is cut and sewn with a steel die or using a state-of-the-art computer controlled cutter. From there, the carpet is bound and the heel pad is sewn on. Before 1959, carpets were cut and sewn from a pattern and placed into the vehicle. Eventually, carpets were fitted using molds.

Auto Custom Carpets uses fiberglass molds to replicate the vehicle floors on which the carpet is placed. Molds are made from original floor pans of vehicles. Original floor pans are obtained from wrecked vehicles or from individuals who own the type vehicle needed. During the molding process, carpet is heated in excess of 200 F to make the back of the carpet more pliable to form to the molds. In a high-pressure process, the carpet is molded into shape and padding is applied to the back of the carpet. Once the carpet cools, it is trimmed and finished and ready to be shipped.

New molds are added to the line on a weekly basis based on customer request. “We keep a running list of every product that was ever requested,” Stevens says. “There are many vehicle types out there and we can make [carpet replacements] for all of them.”

Streamlined Process
Stevens, a 23-year veteran with the company, says the majority of its managers have been with the company for 20-plus years and have streamlined its manufacturing operations gradually since its inception. An in-house IT department has been a boon to order tracking and management, he notes. “When you deal with as many customers and ship dates as we do, having that information at hand is so important,” he adds. “We can view live orders in several different stages.

“It used to take us hours to manage our inventory and orders, but now, with just the click of a button, we can manage our reports in a matter of minutes,” he continues.

In addition to inventory control, Stevens says that if problems arise during the production process or if a customer decides to make changes in the middle of production, managers can locate the order and make adjustments.

“When you have as many molds as we do, there is a lot invested in these work stations,” Stevens notes.

“This system was written by people who have 10-plus years with the company that know the product and know how to speed up delivery,” Brothers adds. “If a customer wants to know when an order will ship, we can easily find that.”

Another element that makes the company unique is its ability to process and ship an order within 24 to 48 hours of order placement. When an order is placed, a ticket is printed and production starts almost immediately, Brothers says.

Truly Employee-Owned
Today, all employees have ownership in the company at no cost. The amount put in each employee’s account annually is based on profit of Auto Custom Carpets that year. The program has been a particular point of pride for company employees, Brothers says. “This is an employee-owned company,” she notes.

“[The program] is based on sales for the year, and money is set aside for each person at the company for their retirement plan. It has really motivated employees to strive to have the best product and make sure our manufacturing process is such that it boosts sales."