AmericasMart Atlanta

Press Release

Shaw Living Signs Nine-Year Lease, Virtually Double Space at AMERICASMART

August 31, 2006

ATLANTA, July 19, 2006—Shaw Living continues its long-standing AMERICASMART-ATLANTA relationship with a new nine-year lease, greatly expanding its presence and broadening its product and service mix in the nation’s largest area rug marketplace.

An AMERICASMART exhibitor since 1992, Shaw Living—a division of Shaw Industries Group, Inc.—encompasses a large family of internationally renowned brands representing some of the most popular and prestigious names in the area rug industry: Kathy Ireland Home, Tommy Bahama Home and the Jack Nicklaus and William E. Poole collections.

“This expansion is about more product, more selection, more services and more customers doing business with us in Atlanta. Our new space signals continuing growth across all our product lines and positions us to elevate the quality and level of customer service buyers expect from Shaw Living,” said Jeff Meadows, Shaw Living vice president.

The new lease virtually doubles Shaw Living’s AMERICASMART facilities, with more than 13,000 square feet of showroom space secured through 2015. The new showroom is the largest single product exhibition venue in the U.S. outside of Shaw’s Dalton, Georgia headquarters.

The new space—located in AMERICASMART ?, floor 6, 6A2—will be the Area Rug Center’s largest showroom and is a key factor in the 6th-floor reconfiguration occurring in tandem with showroom build-out. Occupancy is scheduled for January 2007.

“Shaw Living champions great product, rich styling, extraordinary selection and enduring quality. Its commitment to superior service sets a standard to which we aspire,” said Jeffrey L. Portman, president and chief operating officer of AMERICASMART parent AMC, Inc.

“We have long admired Shaw Living’s passion for innovation and are delighted to continue this long and highly important partnership,” Portman added.

The new Shaw Living showroom will give buyers the largest selection of Shaw product available in any wholesale marketplace. The 6th-floor reconfiguration, resulting in part from the Shaw Living expansion, will yield additional 6th-floor showroom space projected for January 2007 occupancy.

Shaw Living is a division of Shaw Industries Group, Inc., a subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway, Inc., the largest soft floor-covering manufacturer in the world. Shaw Industries is a U.S. producer of machine-woven rugs in wool, olefin and nylon. In addition to the printed and machine-woven categories, Shaw Industries also produces wool custom tufted and nylon fabricated rugs and carpeting, as well as hardwood, laminate flooring and ceramic tile. For more information, call 1-800-282-7429, write to Shaw Rugs at P.O. Drawer 2128, Dalton, GA 30722-2128, or visit www.shawrugs.com.

For more information on AMERICASMART-ATLANTA and its annual markets, please call 1-800-ATL-MART or visit AmericasMart.com.

AMERICASMART-ATLANTA is the largest wholesale marketplace of its kind in the world, and is a leading international market source for a wide variety of consumer goods. It hosts 23 wholesale markets and six Market Wednesdays that annually attract more than 548,000 attendees from every U.S. state and 80 countries.

Retailers attending its markets identify AMERICASMART as the gift/home furnishings/area rug wholesale marketplace most important to their business—as compared to all competing U.S. wholesale markets—in independent research conducted by Moore & Symons, Inc.

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