Resilient floors have been a mainstay of the floor covering world for so long that some in the industry take for granted the unique mix of benefits the product offers end users.
When the product category launched in the United States during the mid 1990s, laminate flooring generally was positioned as a less expensive, easier-to-install alternative to wood flooring. Since then, laminate styling has moved on to rather convincingly imitate the looks of ceramic, stone and other popular hard-surface floor covering materials.
Declaring their recent restructuring of operations a success that’s returned the company to profitability, top executives at Beaulieu of America have laid out their revamped business strategy and announced the addition of a new premium performance carpet in the high-end Hollytex line.
Odds are strong that if you sold a hardwood floor in the last year, it was a prefinished product manufactured for a residential application by Bruce Hardwood Floors.
Declaring their recent restructuring of operations a success that's returned the company to profitability, top executives at Beaulieu of America have laid out their revamped business strategy and announced the addition of a new premium performance carpet in the high-end Hollytex line.
Don’t say we didn’t tell you so. When NFT published the results of our inaugural Ceramic Tile Market Trends Study more than three years ago ("Does Ceramic Tile Deserve a Bigger Slot in Your Product Mix?" June, 1999), we spotlighted a variety of statistics -- as well as the direct input of hundreds of floor covering retailers and distributors -- to support the thesis that ceramic tile represents a product segment with possibly the greatest near-term growth potential in the industry.
The pairing of Mohawk Industries, one of the nation's preeminent flooring manufacturers, with Dal-Tile, the largest manufacturer, distributor and marketer of ceramic tile in the United States, has in one fell swoop established a formidable industry presence with vast potential to expand the distribution of tile products and allow them to more deeply penetrate the specialty retailer channel.
The American National Standards Institute's recent approval of residential laminate flooring performance standards developed by the North American Laminate Flooring Association in some ways marks the maturation of the laminate product segment in the United States.
Most floor covering retailers who are intent on staying in business over the long haul have soberly considered the exhortations of today's management consultants and marketing gurus.