LX Hausys America, a manufacturer of building and decorative materials that is part of Korean-based LX Hausys Ltd., has plans to expand its market share in North America in 2024. The company made its debut appearance at The International Surface Event (TISE) in Las Vegas, Nevada, where it announced new branding, technology innovations, and two new LVT flooring collections. 

The company has been making LVT products for more than 50 years, with solutions for commercial and residential spaces, and has state-of-the-art manufacturing facilities in the United States.

LX Hausys' new Hflor Vice President Steve DeCarlo spoke with Floor Trends & Installation’s multimedia editor Samantha Geiger about the company’s recent Prestg XL LVT campaign and the company's plans for market expansion.  

Floor Trends & Installation: What are your plans for the year? 

DeCarlo: We have some pretty big plans for the year. Our big focus is to develop the North America. While Hflor has been around for a few years, we really have not been pushing into the North American marketplace global brand. It's pretty familiar in Europe and Asia as well. LX Hausys, which is the parent brand of Hflor, has been around for over 70 years. It started with LG Chemical and then went to LG Hausys. About three years ago, we moved into LX Hausys and with that, we started to promote Hflor as the global brand. 

This year we will be putting out new collections like Prestg XL and ForestFusion and WoodHaven. All three of those were at Surfaces. Another big initiative for us to get those new programs out with the innovations we have. 

Floor: What's coming up next for the company? 

DeCarlo: We have a couple of exciting things coming up. One is our deep development on a non-vinyl platform that we want to bring out by the end of the year. We also have a really cool acoustical platform. It is a flexible format, and we will be able to include our TrueMatte and TrueView innovations. We did introduce TrueMatte on ForestFusion at Surfaces. We have the two new innovations (TrueView and TrueMatte) on a flexible glue down acoustical format.  

Floor: From the new campaign, were there any particularly popular designs? 

DeCarlo: Collection wise, all three of our collections that we showed are getting a very good response. What we're doing with ForestFusion and our TrueMatte technology is that we're really right on top of wood. It looks just like wood. You get all the important benefits of LVT or polymer floor. We also get a lot of interest in our Prestg XL. A lot of people really like the clean looks and designs of the large format. Our WoodHaven program, which is another SPC program, gets a lot of interest with the design. The realism that’s coming across in the finish also provides an improvement in stain and scratching. You have a nice mix between a great color palette, a great finish and a great performance. Really, durability is a key thing along with resilience. 

As for color trends, the ones that are doing well are a mix between the light and warmer colors. We definitely see a trend away from the grays, which we have been for a while now. We're seeing more neutral warmer colors becoming more popular.  

Floor: What else is unique about this collection? 

DeCarlo: With Prestg XL, the team is right on trend with what this is going to do for the residential business. One of the key things we’re starting to see is this idea that the house has to be a little more of a sanctuary. We can go and relax and get that calming feeling in our home. So, this idea of modern minimalism as an inspiration, together with soothing designs and colors is really playing well. 

Our planks for Prestg XL are 9” x 60”, so they're very large. They’re 6-mm in thickness. For an SPC in general, it's about 4 to 5 mm. We went up to six because when you walk on it, it feels very much like a natural product. 

Everything that we look at in terms of Hflor is really about nature, bringing nature into the into the environment, whether it's the residential or commercial environment. The other thing that we do is how we do our embossing. We do the emboss and register that's on a continuous basis. So, that gives a much more natural feel to the product when you walk on it and put it to your hand.