Welcome back to The ProSource Podcast. Today, I am sitting here with Patrick Warren. He's going to talk to us about Daltile. And specifically their are Made in the USA campaign that they have rolling out. Patrick is the vice president of dealer sales and showrooms. Adult tile. Doll tile is the industry leading brand of ceramic, porcelain, glass and metal tile, as well as natural stone, large format tile and countertop products. Thank you so much for joining me today, Patrick.
Thanks for having me. It's good to be here. And I know you've been in this industry for a long time. I was actually stalking your LinkedIn page, a little bit before this conversation, and I just wanted you to share for us how you got started in this industry and then how that journey translated into tile. Well, it's always good to start with a funny story. And again, thanks for having me here, Mollie. So I got on the I got in the industry completely by accident.
I was long story fun stories that are over. Maybe a bottle of wine with a bunch of customers. But I was actually looking into getting a grant because I just, I was getting my business degree and I got a fax number wrong, and a recruiter called me and it ended up being for Milliken Carpet, which started my career in 1996. So I completely accidental.
And then through I worked for Milliken for, about nine years and then went to Columbia Hardwood, which was subsequently purchased by Mohawk, and they moved me to Dallas, 18 years ago. So I've been a dealer person my whole career. I love it. And, for the matter, I've been involved with CCI from day one, which has been great. So yes, long career in career. It's been good to me, good to my family and good to the, the it's great industry. I love it. That's awesome.
And how long have you been with Daltile, specifically? Well, so I was part of the you know, I kind of worked through the whole Mohawk Industries, group part of that period. I was with a group called Union that was kind of housed, quick step, Columbia Hardwood, which I came from, Mohawk Card Services, all that on the Dow campus. And I left for four years and came back five years ago. So I've been with that really five years, part of the whole family since, really 2007. Gotcha, gotcha.
And I know, you know a lot of lore about Daltile, because last time you were at CCA, you were letting us know how how it got started in Dallas, Texas. And just wondering if you could share any more insight into that for the people listening, how has the brand evolved since the early days of starting out? It's it's a great story. I mean, today, you know, here we are 78 years later. You know, two brothers started it. One was in Monterrey, Mexico, one was in Dallas, Texas.
They started for whatever reason, I don't know, I believe it was wall tile or some need. Something was out there and through a series of moves and, you know, the company had highs and lows and was purchased and sold several times, came around, purchased by Mohawk Industries. And that really rocketed our business north. You know, today we sit with roughly close to 300 locations. You know, we have sales service centers, really where everybody's located.
We want to make sure we can get tile to where that project and that need is going to be. We have stone centers, almost 40 stone centers. We have, you know, I have one of my responsibilities is I have responsibility for our 113 Daltile owned company showrooms that are scattered throughout the country, and they have different types of showrooms regardless, depending on the market.
And then you know what what I would say, what Mohawk Industries has allowed us is the opportunity to develop and create, proprietary technology that seeds our three core businesses, which would be commercial, new residential, and then our dealer business, which is the largest market that we compete in from a market point of view. So, Daltile has has really great, rich history. I love the 78 years. You know, I, you know, the theme of this is going to come up again.
But here we have 11 manufacturing plants in North America between us and Canada and Mexico. And you know what? Right now they're tariff free. So that's a pretty good story to tell. And get that and that. Yes. And that is kind of where we're going to go with this conversation. Is just learning more about your made in the USA products. And I guess why you guys continue to focus on those, products that are made in the USA. First, I wanted to ask about the Dallas, Texas and the style of it all.
Because I did not know this when I found out like a few months ago when you were visiting. But Daltiles name actually started because it was originated in Dallas, Texas. Correct. So it was you have the Dal and then tile. I it was a fun fact. It was Dallas Tile Company started here in Dallas. And then interestingly enough, and if you go back and you talk to some of the really the veterans of Dallas and that's one of our strength, we it's it's amazing.
Every quarter will have people at the 40 and 45 year anniversaries. But our first sales service center was not Dallas. It was actually in Tampa. For what. Oh who knows? I don't you know, I'm sure there was a customer there that needed a facility, but yeah. No, we've, it's Dallas tile. You'd be surprised at how many people, even when they come to visit our corporate office, they're like, oh, Daltile Dallas like you. It's so obvious. It's not obvious. It's. Yeah. I mean, I did not even realize.
And then when when you spilled that lower on us, I was like, oh, I'm kind of a dummy. How did I not realize that? I mean, listen, you are you are not alone. Everybody has that too. So for sure. So you talked about some of the locations in North America. What benefits does all tile have with having all those manufacturing plants in North America?
Maybe aside, of course, when I think of being made in the USA, I think of two reasons why people love that one, the tariffs like you just mentioned, that is definitely at the forefront, especially right now in 2025, big ongoing issue for trade pros and businesses. And then also you have another section of people that really just value businesses products being made in the USA. That's just a core belief that they have. Are there any other reasons that we might not know about that?
Make it important for adult to have those manufacturing plants in the US? Well, you know, I think if you, if you look, you know, tiles, it's fairly simple product to make very complex in how we actually fire it in our kilns. But, I mean, it's really a clay and a pressure and heat, right? Those three things, you know, the clay in the United States is very good. So we get, for example, you'll see a lot of facilities. We have several facilities in Tennessee.
Tennessee had a very good, soil and clay for us to manufacture that. But I would say our foundation started here. I would say that and in Mohawk's direction, it would be if we can make it in the US, our option would always be to make in the US. And obviously Mohawk Industries has quite a large number of facilities located in North America and as, as do we and we would continue to go down that path. It's not you know, over the years, it's not been the easiest avenue at times.
You know, you had the, you know, heavy, heavy, heavy influx of Chinese products. And we by the way, we're not like, I'll tell a story about being terrifying. Those 11 plants, but we have products that we do import and we have impacts from around the around the world. But we believe that if we can make it domestically, that's where we will of first. Absolutely. Do you think and with 2025 in these tariffs, has that influenced the strategy.
Looking forward into the next couple of years for Daltile to maybe focus more on building out in the US, or has it just kind of stayed maybe the same consistent. Well, I think our, you know, our strategy has been fairly consistent as far as core strategy overall is, you know, providing products at a at the right price, right time, right value, right texture, right technology when they need it. So I don't think that's ever changed.
But yeah, sure, I think if you look at the landscape is is changing, are there products that we import and and some of the products that we import are just products that are more likely to be imported. You know, they're the mosaic that probably come from overseas. Can we do those domestically? Yeah, we're going to look at all of that. Yeah. Better to really so still the, the, the the tile workforce making products domestically. But we're not opposed to international plants.
We have a global ceramic division is a large large division of Mohawk Industries, I believe the largest you know, we have plants all over Italy, Europe, Russia. You know, there's there's a large number of facilities that we can tap into. Yeah. So this made in the USA campaign, very cool campaign idea. When you brought it up a few months ago, I thought it was perfect, especially for in the summer. It's definitely a perfect summer campaign.
Can you share a bit more about this campaign and how anyone that's listening to this podcast can get involved with it or learn more about, just start titles. Us make products, love to. You know, if you look at again, kind of tapping back into our history, I mean, that strategy hasn't changed. None of this is new. This is just telling the story that we've had for 78 years. Know we have nine manufacturing facilities in the US, most of that southeast kind of, rim we have two in Mexico.
They manufacture, you know, up to 500,000,000ft², which is I think can get your head around. That's a huge number. And what's exciting about that is when, when, when the tariffs and tariffs very look at uncertainty in the world right now because of the tariffs. What does that mean. What do I need to do. And we're not exempt from it at all. And even though our plants are manufactured our products are manufactured domestically.
86% of what we sell to ProSource, for example, is domestically produced. We still have impact from, you know, for example, our equipment for these for the facilities, a lot of it comes from Europe. So that might impact some of the glazes may be impacted. We don't know. But the core products leaving are not going to have any tariffs on that. And what's exciting is we started looking at it and said, okay, let's really tell this story because we look everybody's low.
I love Made Americas, but I think up until who's going to speak for the public? I could be wrong. Some people probably challenged me on it, but I believe that a project someone is building a project or envisioning a project. In the end, they're going to pick the product and test for that, whether it's made in the US or not. But I think now I think the the lever is kind of leaning more toward helping provide those, those products to them that are needed, that are made in the USA.
We went through all of our products. Now that made the USA take out the tube from from Mexico to Sicily and Mexico. We have 72 styles, which is we probably should have this number. It's it's thousands of SKUs, like, I mean, because when you start adding in all the different sizes of shapes, the colors, the mosaic, the gold, everything, I mean, it's a lot, almost too much to focus on, which is crazy. So we have a we have a story. It's even hard to tell.
It's a 72 styles on our website downtown.com. Go up into the search bar, just type in made in USA. It'll pop up a whole kind of microsite that talks about our story, but also has a, a live PDF of all 72 styles that are available today that are made in USA. The best story out there? I can to test. I did look at that too. It was very well put together. I know on the pro source side, we're going to be pushing out some of those, product spotlights that are made in the USA on our social media.
But just out of curiosity, is there any specific product styles off the top of your head that you favor, like any favorites that you have? You know, I love our new products and you know, some of the stuff that the Dow pile does and I'm super proud of have three my three favorite things to talk about. We have three different technologies that are proprietary. Only the Daltile and I'll talk about. And the third one I'll talk about a specific product.
I wish I got my show picture, but you have, defend with Microban. You know, Microban eliminates 99% of the mold, mildew and bacterial growth. Next is stepwise. Stepwise is the best product that everybody does some more of, including Delphi. We talk about it all the time. You can't see it. You can't feel it. You can clean it. You know, a lot of times it'll be a topical treatment. It'll add a little grit to the top is so you can feel the resistance if you're walking on it.
And if you go to wipe a paper towel over, it's going to tear the paper towel. It doesn't happen for tile. It's 50% more slip resistant to 19 on the market, which is the best? our newest one is called 3D reveal Sink you know, a lot of the laminate has done it for a long time. LBF started doing it not long ago. It's where you know, you'll you'll you'll press the graining of, let's say the in this case. So we talk about wood, you know, your your mineral streaks and your cathedrals.
The graining that we press into the tile will follow that. And we have a brand new product called Hayden Stone it's amazing. And it's a it looks so realistic. It looks like a natural stone. And then we've progressed in graining. It follows the natural course of a of a of a piece of stone. It just came out of the quarry. And here's the best part. It's proprietary to Daltile, I love it, I love telling it. So Hayden Stone's a good week. Our products are really, top shelf.
We've got amazing product ability and that's awesome. And that seemed really easy for you to come up with those favorites, although you knew exactly what was at the top of your mind. We live and die by products. I mean, if you think about everything that we do, it's all about making sure that that who that consumer and that selector. I've started using the word selector versus consumer, that selector over choosing our products.
We want to make sure that they they have technology, color, design, shape that makes them happy, the way in their mind that they developed it. So they come back and tell people that they purchased our tile. Absolutely. Speaking of products, I know that all tile products are noted for being free of, fox PVCs and allergens. Does having US based products play into the sustainability at all? Interesting? That's a good question. I would say here's here's the way I would answer
Not any different than where you make it anywhere else in the world. But when you make it domestically, you're not spending, you're not emitting all of the, exhaust and things like that. If you put it on a ship, you put it on a truck to get to the ship shipped to the US, all the ports, all of that. You're literally going from our plant to a consumer's home or a showroom or wherever. So you cut down your carbon footprint merely on the logistics.
just out of curiosity, has there ever been a time in Daltile's long history that Daltile has ever felt pressure to offshore production out of the states? Oh for sure. Yeah. Oh, you I mean, you go back and you look at just, you know, any U.S manufacturer felt it when, you know, when you were, you know, we were making a product that we were trying to sell for $2.50 and then India or China specifically just are bringing products in and they're selling for half that.
How do we how do you how do you compete on that. You know, so definitely pressure on that. We look at it today as let's let's use the global manufacturing global opportunity to source certain products depending on like take that, take our countertop business. We have an amazing countertop business. We have. Yeah we we make the largest one, quartz, slab in the industry. We're just we're adding our second line file in Dixon, Tennessee. We talked about that Tennessee clay.
That's all in Dixon, Tennessee. And, you know, our story continues on where we make the product. So it's really a good, a good story to tell for now. And what kind of feedback have you heard from, contractors, designers or selectors, as you call them? About working with a brand, that manufacturers in the US, have you seen that be a big like topic in their brain that their they're actively looking for a brand that works in the US. Have you, have you heard that kind of feedback from people?
Yeah, I think it's in a little couple of different areas. If you look at our showrooms, you know, somebody comes into our showroom and you know, we don't we don't sell to the public, but we will we will select for them. They'll push them out into the in the field. They're coming in. I don't even know if they're looking for us made products as much as they're like, what do we do? What is this? What is the what are the tariffs mean?
I mean, I have friends that didn't realize that we paid the tariffs. They didn't understand even how it works. So I think there's that pressure. I think on the dealer side when they're sourcing, when they're selecting vendors for sure they're looking for made the USA. You know Daltile is a safe haven. You know, I was up in Oklahoma recently with, you know, some of their own, several pro sources. And he was talking about like, I think you guys are an amazing safe haven. And we want to export,
you know, we want to we want to figure out how to grow that even more. So. So there's opportunities everywhere. Yeah, I think for sure it comes down to money for a lot of people. Right. Like of course they want quality and quantity. But especially like you mentioned with the tariffs people are confused. And then also they don't want to be spending too much money on bottles and products for sure.
looking at the made in the USA campaign, what is next for that campaign and are there any exciting plans, for this next month, or do you know if you plan to make this a yearly campaign? You know, we you know, I don't know about yearly. That's a great question. I think we should I think I I'm a big fan of it. I think, you know, I will tell you one of the things we're doing in our showrooms is all of our show 113 showrooms that can participate.
We want to we're going to have a made we're going to have a a month long open house. theme is going to be, you know, take me out to the ballpark. Week one, hot Diggity dog. Week two Papa chinos. Week three. So I can't remember. I'm sorry, I don't remember. A week four is, use cream ice cream for Daltile. Let's love it. Yes. So the idea is, is just come in and we'll highlight the made in USA products. We'll talk about how we design. We'll do flat lays and all that.
So the idea is just, you know, tell that story. But I guess the real question is I mean, or the real answer is, you know, we're not we're not highlighting our made in USA. We're just emphasizing more of what we're doing. That's what the campaign is a to light. Yeah. We should be telling the story all day long. I talk to our sales team every day. Like, listen, this is the best story. You know, everybody's talking about where they can't get it. We're here 72 style. Yeah. You can't go wrong.
And we're going to we're going to continue to tell that story. You can do it to expand and continue to develop downtown's future. Yeah I think it's a great idea about this campaign because it helps promote that connection with, the selectors. They're not only seeing beautiful products, but they're actually getting to know the brand, the history and then and results that makes them think of style, maybe top of mind more so than competitors because they know you guys more. Right.
There's a connection and people are always looking for human connection. So I think this campaign is very smart and not just, great at being connecting to consumers, but also, education. Right? People are always learning about not just your brand, but, why you do what you do and it just promotes that connection. So I think there's pride too. And and we need to I need to push it out a little bit more where, you know, we have a huge talent in Oklahoma.
And it's like people and you know, it's hard to say Made in Oklahoma because not all the components of the town may come from Oklahoma. Yeah. People in Oklahoma as just an example. It's just north of me. They're like, oh, I don't, I don't, I don't think had stones made there. But as an example, I love that Tielemans made it made with our people. You know there's that. Yeah. You know we plants in Tennessee, we multiple plants in Dallas.
It's just really tells a great story right now and a story we need to keep alive. That's very important. Yeah. So it gives a sense of community for people that are living around that plant like you talked about in Oklahoma. How do you see the value of American made products evolving over the next 5 to 10 years? Both for not just all tile, but the industry as a whole. Well, you know, I think in many cases, the it's not a level playing field for pricing, you know, the cost structure.
You know, there's, you know, there's a period of time when, you know, China had a negative slavery, meaning it was they were over funding manufacturers and their partners to to dump literally products into the, into the US. I think, I think this campaign, it's it's very, very intense right now as far as a terrorist. But I think the long term endgame is I think I think we're going to look at opportune cities to expand the manufacturing base, and everything.
I mean, look at how in the mix, I mean, everybody where we can do it, we should be doing it here and I that's it. Listen. It's fantastic. We're the most powerful, country in the world, and we should have. The manufacturing is the core of what makes that power continue on. And I think we just need to do that, I completely agree. Is there anything else exciting coming up for Daltile over the next year? Oh, we got products coming. We got great products, amazing technology.
You know, our our we'll probably be talking to ProSource community more about our countertop program kind of coming up here at the back half of the year. We've got some really good solutions. They're great styles and designs. But you know we design products for the end user and that selector.
Good. And talking about Mollie again for that commercial whether it's Main Street or specified that production home builder, whether it's, you know, the liners of the world, a large production home that builders, custom home builders and then that that consumer market. And we're going to continue to do that. We're going to continue to take market share where we can or it's smart for us or Mohawk industry shareholders and ultimately for our partners like Prosource.
So just hit your wagon and we're going to we're going to ride this. We're going to ride this future together. And by this big thank you to everyone at Prosource, we are thankful for every piece of tile you provide us. And and we just we know the future's bright for our partnership. Absolutely. And anyone listening, if you're interested in learning more about Daltile, you can check out the Daltile website.
We also have a lot of writing on the ProSource website, and check out your local ProSource Wholesale, for Daltile tile samples. Or just ask, an account manager out of showroom to learn more. But thank you so much. I'm here. Yeah, or Patrick Warren. You can stock LinkedIn like I did before we met. But thank you so much, Patrick, for coming on and just sharing more about this campaign. I'm sure this won't be the last time for all titles on the podcast.
So as always, I look forward to talking to you. I appreciate it. Thanks, Molly. Thanks for your time. Thanks, everybody. Take care. Thank you for joining us today on the Progress podcast. Please like and subscribe to us wherever you get your podcast. Also, follow us on social media. Check out our website at prosource wholesale.com And visit your local ProSource Wholesale showroom for all of your home remodeling needs.