Carpets Inter, Carpets International Thailand Public Company Limited is an eco-friendly carpet company that aims to create high-quality modular carpet products that enhance people’s lives. Carpets Inter creates modular carpets that deliver beauty and efficiency for customers while providing sustainability for the planet. By 2025, the brand aims to recycle over 1,000,000,000 discarded plastic bottles. Richard Morris, Global Business Director, Carpets Inter gives TMM an insight into the noble philosophy of the brand.
You have more than 39 years of experience in carpet manufacturing. How do you see the evolving carpet industry over the years?
My experience of most types of carpet manufacturing has primarily focused me on sales, marketing, and new product innovation for both the hospitality and corporate sector. Although technology in commercial carpet manufacturing equipment has remained relatively constant, the production of residential area rugs is fast becoming commoditized, with robotic tufting machines taking over traditional hand-made output. Nowadays, with the large international home stores of the world buying and selling low-cost utilitarian area rug on mass, it’s simple and easy for a consumer to buy an area rug that provides a 3-to-5-year return on investment that can be ‘fashionably’ exchanged without loss. And with reduced fees, interior designers are putting the onus back onto manufacturers to manage the expense of customization development, a service expected free of charge. Construction budgets are often managed by developers and fit-out contractors who are left to source materials with unspecific product specifications, where of course lowest price wins over-investing into the longevity of performance and appearance retention.
Tell us about your company Carpets Inter and what makes it different from the contemporaries?
Carpets International has a 70-year manufacturing history originating from the UK, Australia and relocated operations in Thailand in the early 1970s, wherein 2017 the business was acquired by TCM Corporation, owned by the Srivikorn family members who have committed investments into innovation, manufacturing, sales, and distribution channels to grow and sustain Carpets International for many years to come. Our point of difference is our unique modular tile backings and the processes we undertake to ensure they sustain the environment for future generations. CI has a history of sustainable practices dating back almost 20 years. We have zero waste to landfill and are completely self-sustainable in water supply & treatment. We repurpose and donate 100% of the sediment deposited from our on-site water recycling treatment plant for organic 
agricultural fertilizer. Organic fertilizer is free from harmful pesticides, and in addition to crop growths natural process of photosynthesis turning CO² into Oxygen, our organic waste supports infinite microorganisms that regenerate soil by naturally drawing down harmful green-house gasses (CO²) back into the ground, where they originated from.
The core of the brand lies in the motive of recycling over 1 billion discarded plastic bottles by the year 2025. How did this idea happen?
Unfortunately, India is the number one polluter of plastic waste entering into our oceans, with an estimated 550million kg of plastic garbage being disposed of via the river Ganges alone every year. Since 2001, our unique EcoSoft backed Carpet tile has been manufactured from recycled single-use plastic PET drinking bottles. This has led us to recycle over 0.8 billion bottles to date, whereby each year proceeds of EcoSoft Sales are donated to the non-profit organization – The Ocean Clean-up. At 
Carpets Inter, we are committed of providing eco-friendly products by working together with the Architectural, PMC & MNC community towards providing healthier occupied spaces in a manner that protects the environment… WHY? – Because it’s simply good stewardship towards sustaining the Planet for future generations.
Tell us a bit about the design philosophy of the brand and what is your idea of modular workspace?
At Carpets Inter, we make high-quality modular carpet products to enhance people’s lives. This commitment goes beyond providing a product that is safe, comfortable, and well designed. It extends to fostering humane, safe, and ethical workplace conditions in every facet of our multinational business while promoting those same values – and a greater commitment to social awareness – wherever our brand is present. We base this promise on the underlying principle that the truest value of a company should be judged not only by its product or its profit but ultimately, by its social benefit to people.
A key element towards creating a healthy, functional and comfortable workspace conducive to high productivity is the type of flooring used. The primary requirement governing the selection of flooring for corporate office space is that it should be ‘fit for purpose’, i.e., that the functional performance of the flooring should match the users’ requirements. This definition covers not only the physical or functional performance but also the many factors that impact users and occupant’s wellbeing and productivity, and are a recognized part of the working environment, e.g., aesthetic appeal, acoustic 
suppression, ergonomic impact resistance and underfoot comfort, soil-hiding, anti-microbial assuring indoor air quality, the ambient temperature of thermal barrier reducing energy expense and carbon footprint, environmentally aligned.
In the first few years, your brand achieved the goal of zero waste and is continuing to work in the most sustainable manner. How do you people manage to do so?
Our commitment to ecological sustainability extends beyond our product. We practice it in everything we do – from manufacturing facilities that maintain the highest environmental standards, to reducing our carbon footprint in every facet of our global business. The location of our facility means we responsibly protect the surrounding residential and agricultural land. Carpets Inter practice an environmentally sustainable approach in every step of manufacturing under the principle of the 3R’s (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle), waste minimization and resource conservation. Over 90% of the energy we consume is ‘clean’ energy, where we ‘pay’ to donate all uplifted ‘take-back’ old carpet and new carpet offcuts to refuse-derived fuel to power generation and/or cement production.
What are your future plans for Carpets Inter?
The global pandemic has left the manufacturing community severely impacted in the form of raw material cost increase, an exorbitant rise in global shipping charges and drastically reduced business in the last 12 months. However, at Carpets inter, we are committed to providing eco-friendly products by working together with the Architectural, PMC & MNC community towards providing healthier occupied spaces in a manner that protects the environment.
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