National Floor
Trends asked a panel of top executives to answer several questions
about business conditions in the floor covering industry for the coming year:
BUSINESS CLIMATE:
What is your forecast for 2008? What initiatives are you taking to help business rebound?
GREEN: Sustainability and environmental responsibility
have never been more prominent
issues in flooring. What are
you doing to distinguish your operation in these areas?
TRAINING: How does your company approach training and
installation? What are you doing to address this area?
“Typically I look forward to your
editorials…” began one response. It arrived after I suggested shop-at-home
operations are not “real” retailers. I was flattered by that whiff of faint
praise, but those were just the first few words. “Your [editorial] left me with
some indignation,” it continued. It was a sentiment expressed by a number of
NFT readers. No one was nasty or even remotely insulting, but it’s clear I hit
a nerve. People who run shop-at-home operations do not enjoy being lumped in
with big box stores or Internet sites that sell flooring on the cheap. Their
point is well taken. So I thought a follow-up was in order.
Our exclusive survey finds: Solid majority say
they actively pitch the category; market evenly split between foreign and
domestic; residential sales still dominate; 40% of sales for non-floor areas.
Wood Flooring International (WFI) founder and ceo, Bill
Jopling, told NFT that he had no option but to initiate the “orderly
liquidation” of his nine-year-old company after the abrupt closing of the
multi-state distributor Hoboken Floors.
It was my last day in Hangzhou
after a whirlwind week attending the China Wood International conference and
touring factories. My wallet was filled with Yuan-the pink and purple Chinese
currency bearing the stern but benevolent face of Chairman Mao. I had not
gotten around to spending most of what I brought over and the prices were
irresistible. But what to buy? With the exception of a Harry Potter book
translated into Chinese I saw virtually nothing I could not find back home.
Saving money is always nice but I wanted something unique, something special,
something you could only get in this part of the world. It turns out, I quickly
learned, China is well past that.
Ever eager to help, my wife
recently pointed to a modest little shack of a flooring store in our
neighborhood and offered a suggestion. “Why don’t you do a story on them?
They’re right near us.” I glanced over at this little standalone store. It had
a pitched roof, a wood shingle exterior and all the charm of a tool shed. It
was adorned with hand-painted signs hawking low, low prices on brand name
flooring. There are dozens just like it in the Los Angeles area where we live.
“They’re not NFT material,” I sniffed. My wife, Nancy, was perplexed, “I don’t
understand. They sell flooring don’t they?”
For
all the changes seen in the flooring business of late, nothing has altered the
importance of carpet. How important? The product occupies at least half the
merchandising space at a typical floor covering store. One of every four
dealers say they devote at least 75% of their showroom to the category. While
the totals are influenced by the inclusion of carpet-only stores, the survey of
retailers makes clear carpet’s towering presence in the flooring business.
Consumers shopping for flooring
can be forgiven if they assume “CFS” is some new TV crime show spin-off coming
this fall. Most likely, the typical shopper has no idea what this acronym
really means. That’s understandable. But if you are in the business of selling
flooring, you most certainly should know what “CFS” stands for: It stands for
integrity and it stands for expertise in flooring. Most importantly, it stands
for the future our industry. It would be a crime for anyone in our business to
overlook the growing significance of these three letters.
Strategies designed to help their membership overcome sluggish business conditions dominated the agenda at the summer conventions of two major floor covering retail groups operated by CCA Global Partners. During their back-to-back meeting in Cincinnati, the leadership of Carpet One Floor & Home and its sister co-op Flooring America/Canada each unveiled plans aimed at helping members navigate through turbulent times. While the two approaches were markedly different, the message was consistent: A savvy retailer can use the current conditions to gain market share and create a stronger, more efficient operation.
It’s been said that a recession
is when your neighbor is out of work and a depression is when you are out of
work. That certainly seems applicable to the current slump in the flooring
business. I keep coming across retailers who lament the slowdown in flooring
sales. They speak with authority about the factors that have contributed to the
situation. Many can recite real estate stats and wax eloquent about consumer
confidence, fuel prices and the cyclical nature of the business. Yes, they tell
me, of course they are concerned. Then, in the next breath, they say they are
planning to add a new store and that sales this year are up over last year.
“Everyone is struggling,” one such retailer told me, adding “Luckily we haven’t
really felt it.”