One of the better man-made twists around, Shepherd does come close to the look and feel of wool, at least with customers. We have regularly had excellent feedback from customers over the years and have had quite a few customers buy it after moving house – repeat Shepherd Twisters!
One thing that Balta have always done with this carpet is to avoid reducing the pile weight from the near-perfect 45oz – instead they have simply put up the price when they needed to. After the last 18 months of recession and awful exchange rate problems however, I was worried about the new release. I do have some justification now in that the pile weight has been cut down to 42oz – still pretty good for a carpet of this type and still recommended by me. They have cut the price by £1 per square metre to retailers, so I would say that this carpet will find the £10-£15 per square metre price band.
One new additional benefit is that it finally comes in both 4 metre and 5 metre widths – that was long overdue.
The colours are very much a plethora of natural shades once more. Beiges and creams still dominate but the best-selling ‘Mocha’ shade is continued. I think around 8 or 9 of the shades are carried forward and we see some newcomers – a dark red, a dark grey and we see the blue disappearing along with the bright red. I’m surprised at the bright red being dropped as we are selling a fair amount of that shade right now.
I’d certainly continue to recommend this carpet. Yes, the pile weight has dropped slightly, and that is a pity, but it still outperforms many competitors of this type. It handles and fits superbly and at this price there is no doubt that is represents excellent value for money.
(Originally posted on 30th September 2009)
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