In 1994, Trull proposed including jacquard fabrics,
which would allow for even more detailed, intricate
patterns.
“I felt we needed a jacquard offering in Sunbrella,
which had never been successfully done before,” he says.
He floated the idea by close friend Mark Grigalunas,
design director for Sunbury Textile Mills, a high-end cus-tom
weaver in Pennsylvania.
“When I first presented the idea of a Sunbrella jac-quard
to Sunbury management, they thought I had gone
insane,” Grigalunas said in a 2014 press release celebrat-ing
the 20th anniversary of the partnership between the
two companies. “Glen Raven had mastered the cleanable
and durable parts, so all we had to do was make it beau-tiful,
which I knew we could do.”
As it grew it was a very viable relationship for both
companies.
In “An American Success Story – Celebrating 50 Years,”
a book published by Glen Raven, the company credits
Trull’s visionary idea for starting “a whole new chapter in
the life of Sunbrella. … The brand was suddenly elevated
to an entirely new level and given access to premium
markets.”
Suddenly price was not an object. Trull brought
Glen Raven an opening order from Kravet Fabrics for
$526,000.
“What he has been good at is seeing opportunities
which other people have not,” Ludvigson says. “He’s
taken known businesses to new areas. Look at what
he’s done for the casual furniture market, which wasn’t
designed before. He’s certainly been a big part in estab-lishing
and developing Sunbrella into a more design-oriented
brand. He takes his knowledge and puts it into
a new type of business.”
With Trull’s designs, Sunbrella’s interior fabrics also
include boucle, chenille and terrycloth textures.
“My whole life has been not seeing things the way
everyone else sees it,” he says. “My whole career has been
based on thinking outside the box.”
Trull continued to consult for Glen Raven until
2000. At his retirement party, Gant told the crowd that
Sunbrella products were 10 percent of the company’s vol-ume
when Trull came on board. Gant credited him for
raising it to 90 percent.
“Randy is one of the most creative individuals I’ve ever
known,” Gant says. “He pushed us really hard to open
our horizons. He opened a whole new avenue of fabrics
and ideas that we didn’t have. I can’t say enough good
things about Randy.”
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WBM september 2017