Davison Rugs Marks 71 Years in Business
By ED SALVAS
Andrew Hansen (right) and his brother, John, are the fourth generation family members at Davison Rugs in Ocean Grove. Also pictured is Wendy Hansen, Andrews wife.
Today, the fourth generation of the Hansen family runs the business that opened its doors in 1936, originally as a retail outlet for rugs manufactured at the Davison Carpet Mill in Hightstown. The carpet mill has been closed for years, but the retail business continues serving customers in Monmouth and Ocean counties and beyond.
Today, Andrew Hansen and his brother, John, great-grandsons of the founders, and Andrew’s wife, Wendy, make up the staff at Davison Rugs. Andrew and John handle the installations while Wendy is in charge of sales in the store and also runs the office. She joined the business in 1987 after marrying Andrew, and actually spent eight years herself as a member of the crew until she took over the store which had been run by her father-in-law, Herb and his brother, Joe.
Davison Rugs has been in the same Pilgrim Pathway location for its entire existence and Wendy says her first job on taking over the store in 1995 was to re-arrange the merchandise displays to capitalize on the limited space.
The store carries a variety of flooring products, including carpeting, hardwood flooring, laminates and vinyl floors and area rugs. She says the merchandise is truly global, with the carpeting from U.S. mills, while area rugs and runners are mostly made overseas, and the hardwood floors come from Switzerland and China.
The retail rug business had been dominated by independent family-owned businesses for years, but that’s been changing with the arrival of giant “big box” retailers like Home Depot and Lowe’s Home Improvement Centers. They not only sell flooring and floor coverings, but also do installations. That’s where an independent firm like Davison has an advantage, according to Wendy, who says they frequently get calls from customers of the other stores who want them to fix problems such as “buckling” caused by improperly installed carpeting.
Davison relies heavily on “word of mouth” advertising and can boast of having several generations of customers for referrals.
“Thank goodness for our regular customers,” says Wendy Hansen, referring to people who have purchased carpeting or flooring from Davision each time they’ve moved or remodeled.
They’ve also established a commercial carpet installation business to help them weather the economic uncertainty of the residential side of the business, which Wendy says is “down considerably” this years. She said the commercial side has been doing very well.
Davision has installed carpeting in a number of area churches, including St. Paul’s Methodist Church in Ocean Grove, St. Elizabeth’s Roman Catholic Church in Avon, and the First Baptist Church in Asbury Park. Students in the Ocean Township schools are walking on new Davison Carpeting this year and they’ve also done installations at several medical buildings.
Over the years, the staff at Davison Rugs has seen trends in floor covering come and go. Right now, laminates and hardwood floors are hot sellers, according to Andrew.
“Everyone’s going back to hardwoods,” he says, with area rugs and runners on stairs also very popular. Shag carpeting, a trendy 1970’s style, is also making a comeback, although today’s shag carpeting is easier to care for and doesn’t need to be “raked” as was the case with the earlier styles.
Another change that would confound the original Davison Rugs owners is the internet. A website, www.DavisonRugs.com, was launched earlier this year.
Andrew and Wendy Hansen admit they’ve often contemplated moving to a larger building with more space.
“A warehouse with a loading dock would be very nice,” says Andrew, noting the drawbacks of the current Ocean Grove storefront. But it’s hard to argue with 71 years of success, so for now Davison Rugs is staying put at 39 Pilgrim Pathway.
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