When Interwoven Group LLC was launched in March 2009, Sandy Van Dyke began a journey he had been preparing for his entire professional life. It was only a year earlier that he and John Wilkinson, a colleague from Van Dyke’s days at Van Waters & Rogers Textiles and Supplies, had decided it was time to go out on their own.
“I had always wanted to be a business owner and John convinced me that the time was right,” Van Dyke says.
Van Dyke began his career in a management training program at Bassett Upholstery, a division of Bassett Furniture Industries. In 1973, he took a position at VWR Textiles and Supplies selling nonwoven textiles to furniture and bedding manufacturers. When Van Dyke left the company 20 years later, he was serving as its president and a member of the board of directors of VWR’s corporate parent.
Van Dyke is proud of his tenure at VWR.
“Our management team took a business (VWR Textiles and Supplies) that in 1984 was doing $30 million in sales and grew it to $75 million by 1993,” when it was sold to Carthage, Mo.–based Leggett & Platt.
With the company’s sale, Van Dyke looked for new opportunities. He got his first taste of entrepreneurship as part of a small investment group that purchased the Momentum Textiles division from VWR. He worked as that company’s executive vice president for three years before joining Hickory Springs Mfg. Co. in 1998. For the next 11 years, he led the Hickory, N.C.–based company’s Textile Converting and Fasteners Divisions.
Van Dyke thought long and hard before leaving Hickory Springs. “They’re good people,” he says. “It was a very difficult decision.”
But once the decision was made to join Wilkinson in their own venture, Van Dyke set his eyes on the future.
With 37 years of industry experience under his belt, Van Dyke hopes to make Interwoven Group a significant player in the mattress ticking and construction textile segments.
Sandy Van Dyke showed Interwoven Group LLC products for the first time at ISPA EXPO 2010 in Charlotte, N.C.
“I see us as becoming a very specialized business and growing to $30 million in sales in the next few years,” he says. “We want to capture at least 10% of the market.”
Van Dyke plans to reach this goal by building on his experience, as well as the values that he and Wilkinson share.
“We are completely customer–oriented,” he says. “We listen to people and, understanding their needs, we develop our business around those needs. We have the capability of working with a vast number of companies that can make products for us. Using our knowledge and these resources, we can create products that solve problems and are useful to our customers.”
Van Dyke has more than an entrepreneurial drive and customer–oriented focus pushing him toward building a solidly successful company. He and Wilkinson are intent upon creating a legacy.
“We want to build a family business,” he says. “Our sons, Kevin Wilkinson and Greg Van Dyke, work as account managers in the business and we hope to pass Interwoven on to them.”
Industry supporter Van Dyke has been active in the International Sleep Products Association for years. He has held leadership positions on ISPA’s board, served as chairman of its Suppliers Council and participated in its Finance, Nominating and Trade Show committees, as well as its Membership Task Force. In 2010, Van Dyke received the Robert MacMorran Memorial Award for outstanding service to the industry. “I’ve come to believe that individuals can have an impact and I’ve become dedicated to helping the industry continue to thrive and find ways to better promote bedding,” he says.
The magic of music While still in high school, Van Dyke began playing trumpet semiprofessionally. The gigs paid his way through college, but he put them aside when he married and needed a steady job. Today, Van Dyke plays trumpet and sings in two bands, the Insomniaczzz, the mattress industry band, and Fast Cadillac, a group that plays beach music and rhythm and blues. “Being a musician is addictive. Once you get it in your system, you can’t stop,” he says. “Music gives me energy. Anytime I’m in a difficult situation, I turn to music to help me sort things through. It’s an opportunity to get away from day–to–day life.”
(above) Being a musician is addictive’ says Sandy Van Dyke, who plays trumpet and sings in the industry band, the Insomniaczzz. The band, shown here playing at ISPA EXPO 2010, includes (from left) Gerry Borreggine, Jim Malkiewicz, Ray Allegrezza, David Orders, Van Dyke, Don Wright and Paul Block.
Cherished possession Not surprisingly given his love of music, Van Dyke names his trumpet as his most prized possession. “It’s nothing special, but it’s mine,” he says. “We’ve traveled to a lot of places and played a lot of jobs together.”
Coach Van Dyke Van Dyke loves baseball almost as much as music. He spent 10 years coaching high school teams when he lived in Hickory, N.C., traveling the state with his teams and taking many of them to the playoffs. “Thirty years later, many of my players still stay in touch and that’s very rewarding,” he says.
Bio in brief
Name Sandy Van Dyke
Company Interwoven Group LLC
Title Co–owner and president
Location Van Dyke lives in Conover, N.C.; his company is based in Buda, Texas
Education In 1971, Van Dyke earned a bachelor’s degree in physical education from Appalachian State University in Boone, N.C.
Age 61
Family Van Dyke and his wife, Debbie, have been married for 40 years. They have two children and four grandchildren.
