Freddy & Sharon Kelaty
Our story begins In 1960, when Soli
Kelaty founded The Asiatic Carpet
Company, supplying oriental
carpets to retailers in an around
London, working out of his van and
his garage. Soli moved into his first
premises in Finchley in 1962 and began specialising in
Indian & Chinese carpets as well Persian goods.
By 1985, when Soli’s daughter Sharon joined, Asiatic
was at the dawn of a new era. The father and daughter
team were the first to take advantage of free trade
between the UK and China, propelling Asiatic into a
unique market-leading position. Soli soon opened an
office in Beijing, which enabled Asiatic to lead the way in
standardising product and delivering in volume. As the
company grew Asiatic took on more premises, moving
the OCC in 1994, when Soli’s son Freddy also joined the
team.
In the years that followed, our strategy was to broaden
our modern rug portfolio, as the desire for traditional
rugs declined, leading the market with fashion-
orientated ranges. Being the first in the UK to adapt
traditional rug making techniques for a contemporary
market, Asiatic introduced the first of the modern
Chinese collections in 1998, and we quickly became
recognised as leaders and innovators, a position
proudly held to this day. In the same year we also
launched our first machine made collections and
opened a second distribution centre servicing bespoke
volume products. We were thereby able to achieve
second to none performance on stock and delivery,
continuing to lead in excellence in quality and service.
In 2005, Asiatic opened it’s office in India, and the same
year we launched our first major catalogue of modern
ranges. Katherine Carnaby was launched as a retail
brand in 2015, and in 2016 the Asiatic Rug Collection
was published. This was our first comprehensive
catalogue, setting a new benchmark in spread of ranges
and depth of stock holding, for ready supply to national
and international customers’ supply chains.
In 2019 Asiatic is taking the collection even further, with
our largest ever launch of new products.
OUR STORY
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