The story
William Shuttleworth and his four sons arrived in the United States in 1875 from England and set up a carpet mill in the Hudson Valley upon arrival. After William Shuttleworth died, the four sons moved to Amsterdam, New York in 1878 and took over an empty factory there. The company incorporated as the Shuttleworth Brothers Company in 1902.
The company adopted the name Mohawk Carpet Mills (or Mohawk Mills, for short) in 1920, when it merged with McCleary, Wallin and Crouse, another mill in Amsterdam. It became the country's sole weaver to offer an entire line of domestic carpets, also creating the industry's first textured design and sculptured weave.
In 1956, Mohawk Carpet Mills merged with Alexander Smith, Inc. to become Mohasco Corporation, a company large enough to appear on the first Fortune 500 rankings. Mohasco faced competition from new tufted carpet operations in Georgia, which used synthetic fibers such as nylon and polyester rather than the traditional wool used in woven carpets. To compete in a changing industry, Mohasco gradually moved manufacturing south into the Carolinas and eventually Georgia. In 1963, the company turned some of its attention to furniture manufacturing through acquisitions.
Carpet manufacturing at the Amsterdam site ended by 1968 and the last corporate offices left by 1987. In 1988, Mohasco was purchased by MHS Holdings in a leveraged buyout, and the company's carpet business was spun off from Mohasco to form Mohawk Industries.
In 1992, Mohawk went public with its shares traded first on the NASDAQ Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol "MWK" and currently on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol "MHK."
Mohasco's remaining assets were sold to other investors, and the company was later dissolved. Through 2025, Mohawk Industries has acquired 59 companies into its conglomerate, and now operates manufacturing facilities in 19 countries—the U.S., Mexico, Brazil, Ireland, the U.K., Belgium, France, the Netherlands, Germany, Luxembourg, Spain, Italy, Poland, Romania, Bulgaria, Russia, Malaysia, Australia and New Zealand. The company's present CEO is Paul De Cock, as of September 30, 2026, and the current board chair is Jeffrey Lorberbaum, who retired as CEO after 25 years.
Mohawk's open line brands include American Olean, Daltile, Decortiles, Durkan, Eliane, Feltex, Foss, Godfrey Hirst, Karastan, Kerama Marazzi, Marazzi, Moduleo, Mohawk, Mohawk Group, Mohawk Home, Pergo, Quick-Step, Ragno and Unilin.
From Wikipedia’s article on Mohawk Industries, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.8