The Waldorf Astoria in New York and the Garvaghy Road in Portadown have nothing in common at first glance. One of the most luxurious hotels in the Big Apple and one of the most hotly contested roads in Northern Ireland are at opposite ends of the social spectrum.
But anyone who stays at the Waldorf Astoria will unwittingly be making a connection with the Garvaghy Road: they will be walking on the work of Ulster Carpet Mills.
The Axminster carpet that graces the floors of great hotels - from the Ritz Hotel in London to the Sandton Hilton in Johannesburg - has been carefully crafted under watchful eyes in Portadown or in its sister plant in Durban.
Today Ulster Carpet Mills' factory on Garvaghy Road is closed for essential maintenance work and the company's employees are on two weeks' leave. The factory is virtually empty, save for the occasional engineer or production manager. Outside on the Garvaghy Road there is also an uneasy calm between local residents and representatives of the Orange Order. In the last six years, during July, Garvaghy Road has become a flashpoint for tensions over the right to parade on certain routes in the North.
Although the debate is often played out barely a stone's throw from Ulster Carpet Mills' factory, it is not one that is ever aired within the plant, says Mr Mills.
"We have zero tolerance for people who show intolerance of others of a different persuasion, whether it is religion, colour, gender, sexual orientation or disability. "The fact that we are based at the bottom of Garvaghy Road and that we operate in Durban, which has been one of the flashpoints for ANC and Inkatha violence, has sharpened the sensitivities of all the management in this company," Mr Mills says.
"All our people go through equality training when they join Ulster Carpet Mills as part of the induction process and it is very firmly spelled out at that time that intolerance is not part of our culture.
"I have a strong personal belief in tolerance and everybody from the top down in our company is committed to creating a tolerant society. The board of Ulster Carpet Mills share my view and it is very well understood that no exhibition of bigotry will be tolerated and therefore it does not happen," Mr Mills says.
Ulster Carpet Mills employs more than 1,000 people in Northern Ireland, South Africa and most recently Australia. The fashion for wooden floors has affected many leading carpet companies, some of which have disappeared completely in the North. But not Ulster Carpet Mills; its chief executive has doggedly followed a strategy of investment, research and development. He has also succeeded in maintaining prices - in the last four years there has not been a single increase to customers.
"We have to keep ahead of our customers and we have had to become more efficient and we have had to invest in new technology all the time.
"Ulster Carpet Mills has a hard-won reputation and our policy is simple: we underpromise and we over-deliver and we never tell lies," he said.
It expanded to South Africa to buy in "flexibility of price". "Our South African operation has given us the capability of competing on price for certain contracts. Because of this the company is more robust and we are able to sustain employment in Northern Ireland," Mr Mills said.
Like others in the sector he hopes that affection for "hard flooring" has peaked. "It's too noisy, people are being driven to distraction by the noise of hard flooring and anyway it is a dust trap and a slipping hazard," he adds.
The company plans to invest a further £20 million sterling in the research and development of production techniques. Although Mr Mills is eager to play to the strengths of the team at the company, much of its success has been attributed to his very deliberate direction.
A gently-spoken man he is not only well-respected by his colleagues but has also earned the wider admiration in the North for his work with Business in the Community. Mr Mills is chairman of the body which strives to build closer links between companies and the communities in which they operate. His strong personal convictions have not only helped shape Ulster Carpet Mills but have also been an example to others.
Business in the Community has 220 member companies in Northern Ireland. These companies have donated more than 100,000 voluntary hours. This can include managers going into schools to help slow learners, executives helping older people to learn to read, or large firms donating key staff to help smaller companies.
"It seems sensible to me that businesses should be involved in their local communities, beyond just being a habitat for making money. If a community is going to thrive then companies have to be willing to be part of that community, to visibly outreach to become part of the social fabric. People should really give of their time, invest in their community and get involved," Mr Mills said.
He practices what he preaches, his is not a message based on advice from a public relations consultant, instead he believes in getting involved in the community where his company is based - in this case Portadown.
He believes Portadown - and Northern Ireland - gets a bad press although the people are "generous-spirited and patriotic".
"The vast majority of people - whether they be patriotic as Ulster people or as Irish people - really just want to rejoice in their traditions and get others to rejoice in them also," Mr Mills said.
But he added: "There is a small minority of loyalists and nationalists who seek to impose their opinions and views on everybody else. I, like every other business leader I have ever met, abhors the periodic tests we get on our morale in Northern Ireland, where obsessives seek to humiliate the other side. It can be different and we all have to work together to create an all-embracing society."
