FloorCoveringNews

To further strengthen their wide range of product designs, Johnsonite, the commercial arm of Tarkett and provider of high-performance flooring systems, is introducing a range of new and improved solutions for innovative and sustainable flooring with their Vinyl Composition Tile (VCT) and TexTile VCT collections. Ideal for high traffic areas, the new designs and expanded color options for this classic product increase design flexibility with a modern palette and competitive pricing.

Chagrin Falls, Ohio—Recognizing the majority of the people in North America spend approximately 93% of their time indoors, Tarkett announced a worldwide initiative to lower the amount of total volatile organic compounds (TVOCs) in all its products.

by Celia Payne

Call it retro, call it a throwback, but resilient continues to gain market share. What once may have been considered an outdated, cheaper alternative to the “real deal,” consumers are seeking ways to integrate the versatile faux looks into every part of their home.

The Tarkett Company, provider of the world’s most integrated high-performance flooring system, supports eco-innovation across its business from processes to products. The company’s ReStart Recycling and Reclamation Program allows commercial flooring job scrap (rubber, vinyl and linoleum tile and sheet, wall base, floor finishing accessories and tread-cuttings) to be collected and returned to Tarkett to be repurposed or recycled for other products or uses.

Chagrin Falls, Ohio – To further improve the way Tarkett products impact Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) and the health of building occupants, the company recently announced it is making several product advancements to have all North American products under the limit of quantification – less than 10 micrograms per cubic meter – for TVOCs (Total Volatile Organic Compound). The company has already begun to significantly reduce product emissions and several of its products – Johnsonite’s homogeneous sheet and tile flooring, SVT (solid vinyl tile), VET (vinyl enhanced tile) and VCT (vinyl composition tile) – are already at less than 10 micrograms per cubic meter.

Tarkett and NRF Distributors have announced an extension of its partnership that it will include representation of all commercial products under the Johnsonite brand and all residential products under the Tarkett brand. NRF will represent the expanded Tarkett portfolio across a region that includes Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Vermont, Western New York and Northwest Pennsylvania.

Chagrill falls, Ohio — Tarkett announces a price increase of 3 to 8% across its residential and commercial brands.

“The persistent escalation in prices of raw materials has outpaced internal efficiency improvements that typically help offset cost volatility,” stated Jeff Buttitta, President and CEO of Tarkett North America. “Though cost-saving efforts remain a constant, these sustained increases necessitate price adjustments.”

Chagrin Falls, Ohio– To offer designers, installers and building owners greater flexibility, speed, sustainability and return on investment, Johnsonite, the commercial arm of the Tarkett company, introduced its new SlideLock glueless flooring system. This unique system installs easily and does not require adhesive, so tiles can be removed and used over and over again. SlideLock can be a temporary or permanent solution for many commercial applications and can be repurposed for other locations, returned to Johnsonite for reprocessing or even donated to a charitable organization at the end of use.

CHAGRIN FALLS, OHIO—Aimed at designers, the newly expanded Cortina Grande solid vinyl tile (SVT) from Johnsonite’s Azrock collection is now available with twice the number of color options.

CHAGRIN FALLS, OHIO—Diane Martel, vice president of environmental planning and strategy for Tarkett North America, will deliver a presentation on human factors in interior design at this year’s International Facility Management Association’s World Workplace Conference and Expo in Phoenix.

CHAGRIN FALLS, OHIO—Johnsonite, the commercial arm of Tarkett, was recently awarded two prestigious environmental certifications for the sustainable content and production of their Harmonium xf linoleum flooring: a certified United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) BioPreferred program Biobased Product Label, and a Cradle to Cradle (C2C) Silver tier certification. Currently the company’s linoleum consists of 80% biogenic materials and Harmonium xf Linoleum has the highest rapidly renewable content in the industry, according to company executives.

Web presence is part of today’s new normal, identified as an essential component of the cost of doing business. In this industry, a website can be considered a landing page for the consumer to learn about products, programs and ways to improve her home, though that paradigm is shifting with the proliferation of social media platforms; particularly Facebook with its more than 750 million active users.

Today’s websites favored by Google and Yahoo search engines have fresh and unique content, so many companies are focused on updating and differentiating what draws consumers to their sites. Additionally, search engines filter duplicate content, so the World Floor Covering Association (WFCA) was careful to add features that made it one-of-a-kind when its spiders crawl through site content.

While the concept of installing a floor without the use of adhesives is no longer new to the industry, the idea of “floating” the floor has become all the rage in the resilient category. Thanks to advances in technology, as well as the acceptance of floating floors by retailers, installers and consumers, manufacturers continue to bring out innovative installation systems to help make the overall process of selling and buying a resilient floor easier and less stressful.

As one of the strongest categories across the flooring industry, resilient producers are introducing a number of new collections and updates this fall. Focusing on a strong value proposition, stone and wood looks are the popular visuals, while easy installation features seem to be en vogue from a technical perspective.

Many companies are also introducing goods for the commercial side, or warranting performance with light commercial guarantees. With the residential market scraping along the bottom, suppliers are providing retailers with products that can yield the greatest profit at all points along the channel.

DALLAS—To help consolidate the company’s post-consumer vinyl composition tile (VCT) efforts in the region, Johnsonite, the commercial arm of Tarkett, has formed a partnership with Texas Carpet Recycling and Corporate Floors to serve as the central collection point for the mill’s ReStart Reclamation and Recycling program.

The philosopher Aristotle once said, “If one way be better than another, that you may be sure it is nature’s way.” A widespread embrace of sustainability initiatives brought the resilient flooring industry to a realization that nature’s way is the best, and the market was flooded with third-party certification programs proving so. Simplifying that process is the ANSI standard NSF 332, in its early stages of implementation.

CHICAGO—The commercial market is on the upswing, and NeoCon 2011 could not have been more reflective of that trend. Hotel room reservations were up 27% over the three-day NeoCon 2010 period, forcing many members of the A&D community to the outskirts of the city. Elevator wait times at the Merchandise Mart were longer than in recent years, and hallways on the floors housing the permanent showrooms were more challenging to negotiate—all signs of a healthy show.

Tarkett is set to take over the French market leader Parquets Marty, making Tarkett the leading flooring manufacturer in Europe, with an annual production of over 6 million square meters and four production sites, according to a press release.

There are pretty much two ways to look at the laminate flooring category in 2010. The optimists will focus on the fact that for the second consecutive year, and in a very tough economic climate, laminate manufacturers moved more square feet of the product than the year prior. Unfortunately, it is happening at the expense of the product’s average selling price. Thus, the category suffered its fourth straight year of declining sales in terms of dollars, although similar to 2009, the dip was only in the 2% range.

AMELIA ISLAND, FLA.—Nine years ago the thought of recycling carpet back into itself or another product was minimal at best. Then the Carpet America Recovery Effort (CARE) was born and, since that time, more than 1.7 billion pounds of post-consumer carpet (PCC) has been recycled, with an additional 300 million pounds diverted from the nation’s landfills.

Luxury vinyl tile (LVT) is the hottest new product in flooring, with growth of 22.5% in residential product sales when the resilient category was down by 14.2% (FCNews, June 28). Most recently, it captured the fancy of exhibitors and attendees alike at the recent Domotex asia/ChinaFloor as the product du jour in the exhibit halls (FCNews, April 4/11).

SHANGHAI, CHINA—First it was the laminate category, in recent years it has been the wood sector, and while each still played a prominent role at this year’s Domotex asia/ ChinaFloor (DACF), it was the explosion of luxury vinyl tile (LVT) that dominated the 13^th annual trade show here.

Not only was just about every resilient manufacturer showing some type of LVT product, a plethora of companies that up until this year focused on wood and/or laminate were unveiling their own versions of LVT.

Las Vegas—In years past, it was easy to define the top design and technological trends in the laminate category as most introductions included one or both. But with the recession taking a major toll on the category, manufacturers at Surfaces were all over the board as they focused on rounding out their offerings in anticipation of more consumers opening up their purse strings as the year progresses.

Some things get better with time, and visual technology in the resilient category is certainly one of those. Matured manufacturing processes and ink jet technology are producing looks that are as close to the real material as possible with visuals that begged the shopper to check for texture; patterns appeared to have the actual surface depth of quarried stone or handscraped wood. All of that, in addition to a value story that resounds with today’s buyer, made resilient a very popular category at Surfaces 2011.

CHAGRIN FALLS, OHIO—Tarkett will substantially increase its show floor presence at Surfaces 2011 to more than 7,700 square feet of exhibit space with multiple levels.

Resilient producers appeal to value, style to gain share

What was ultimately a false start to an upswing in the industry during the first and second quarters, 2010 has coaxed top executives in the resilient category to project a more conservative outcome for the coming year. However, it is one area that is expected to continue growing. The proliferation of LVT (FCNews, Nov. 22/29) and the advancement of fiberglass (see related story) has created a new value standard for the consumer when she shops floor covering. As one of the few segments capturing share in the residential floor covering market, modesty rules the 2011 diagnosis with an injection of optimism.

Chagrin Falls, Ohio—Tarkett has acquired the Centiva business from International Floors of America, Inc. Centiva is an internationally recognized, designer flooring brand, specializing in resilient tile that enhances interior environments from corporate, hospitality and healthcare to education, retail and residential. Financial terms of the acquisition are not disclosed.

HOUSTON—Tarkett has long touted itself as an environmentally conscious manufacturer and with its facility here recently being certified to meet internationally recognized standards it now has one more piece of proof.

Most products cross all boundaries when it comes to popularity—big screen TVs are in demand in New York as much as they are in California or Florida.

But when it comes to home decorating items like flooring, where a person lives in the U.S. plays a major role not only on the types of products bought but the particular styles used to spruce up the home. For example, houses in the Northeast are often decorated in more traditional looks while those in the Southwest incorporate more of the region’s Native American heritage in their decors.