Designtex Makes Corporate Changes to Better Serve Customers

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. October 14, 2008

NEW YORK, NY, August 17, 2000. Tom Hamilton, President of Designtex, is pleased to announce some management changes that will take effect immediately. Leslie Lewitas has been promoted to Executive Vice President for Sales and Marketing. According to Hamilton, "Leslie will now assume the leadership of our North American Commercial Sales Team. During the past three years she has done an outstanding job in charge of product development and marketing. She has worked to connect our product and marketing functions with our customers. We know that, now, more than ever, our designs are driven by market opportunities and sales. Assuming responsibility for our six commercial sales divisions will enable Leslie to work closely with our sales team and to be highly visible in the field working directly with customers driving Designtex^1s solutions message."

Product design will be led by Jane Wicks, Director of Hospitality and Home Design and Rich Morrow, Director of Commerical Product Design. Hamilton and Lewitas will continue to lead the long-term product development strategy. Additionally, a new hospitality sales division, led by David Codoluto, will report directly to Hamilton. "We've found that Hospitality is a very robust business with its own special needs and requirements. To be really effective, we created a dedicated team that will be focused 24/7 on this market," says Hamilton.

In response to the growing residential side of the business, Hamilton has appointed Steven Rappos, who will report to Lewitas, to the position of Manager of Designtex Home. He will direct Designtex^1s national strategy for its residential collection with a special focus on its network of showrooms around the country. According to Hamilton, ^3This was a direct response to our customers^1 needs and requests. As part of our new strategy, we have changed many of our contract-oriented offices into design center showrooms that can work for residential or commercial clients. So far, we^1ve had great success in the D&D building (New York), the Design Center of the Americas (Florida), Pacific Design Center (Los Angeles) and the Decorative Center (Houston). Our next markets will be Denver, Seattle and San Francisco.^2

Designtex is also making some significant changes in its international strategy. This year, Hamilton launched a subsidiary company, Designtex Euro, based in London. He also expanded operations in Southeast Asia through a dedicated office in Hong Kong that will cover China, Korea, Japan, Thailand, Malasia, Singapore, Taiwan and Australia.