POMPANO BEACH, Florida - Valley Forge has developed their ''Spa Curtain'' business by putting the shower curtain design choices in the hands of the front-of-house designer instead of keeping it in the back of the house as a commodity product.

The two-year old part of Valley Forge's business is now reinventing itself further with the recent addition of customized digital prints on the bath side of the upgraded shower curtain for several hotel projects, said Dan Dobin, owner and founder of Valley Forge.

''It can be a $10 million business within a few years,'' he said. As the owner and founder of the $100 million hospitality fabrics supplier, he spearheaded the Spa Curtain program with his designer Deborah Schwartz, and product manager, Jason Gans.

By creating the new program, Valley Forge has effectively moved the shower curtain from the OS&E buyer to the FF&E designer. This also makes the necessity of having a contractor install the original shower curtains a moot point although this was the previous practice in the industry. With the digital printing development, Dobin can offer hotels the chance to print customized advertising messages on the inside of the curtain liner so only the occupant of the bath sees the message. This message can be a profit center for the hotel owner trying to give convention organizers another way to promote their conventions while they are being held at the property, he said.

''We have made the shower curtain a fashion item for the designer wrapped in a cost saving approach for the hotel owner,'' he said. ''Hotels are driven by cost savings today and Spa Curtain saves the hotel owner money but significantly upgrades the bathroom with a fashion approach,'' he said. Dobin said that housekeeping will save time in the cleaning and the re-hanging of the spa curtain. ''There is significant savings in using this product,'' he added.

''Now we can custom-print the logo of the hotel, a floral design or even an advertisement for the convention at the hoteland only the person taking a shower or bath will see it inside the curtain liner,'' Dobin enthusiastically explained. The new product eliminates the need for a plastic curtain liner and is made of recycled materials.

The samples of the Spa Curtain is designed and produced in the USA but the production run is made entirely in China, Dobin said, ''including the printing.'' The printing does not add significant cost to the product he said, but it produces a great value for the designer and hotel owner.

In addition to offering a fashion approach to hotel shower curtains, the Spa Curtain system saves the hotel housekeeping staff many hours of pinning up old fashioned shower curtains by using the plastic snaps sewn into the liner for attachment to the face fabric, Dobin said. It is now a simpler process to hang the curtains without the old style hooks.

''The net result is that this new business of Spa Curtain as opposed to old time shower curtains, gives the designer more autonomy in choosing the Spa Curtain, making it a fashion item - just like bedding and curtains and upholstery - instead of an installed contractor item with an extra installation charge, Dobin said.

Valley Forge is licensed to market the innovative hanging system invented by Arcs & Angles in New York, which makes the Spa Curtain possible. Valley Forge is the exclusive distributor of pin-less hanging shower curtain systems in the hospitality industry, he said. The hanging system uses rings in a variety of finishes which are fabricated by Arcs & Angles from the fabric components supplied by Valley Forge. All of the choices for the line of Spa Curtains are provided by Valley Forge through its Spa Box of 38 fabric samples, which includes the various types of ring finishes as well as the fabrics. Every designer working on a project is entitled to the Spa Box as a working tool to help them innovate the Spa Curtain design,'' Dobin said.