Ryan Fasan, Tile of Spain’s technical consultant and tile and stone expert, helped kick off Coverings Connected earlier this week with a dive into the state of the tile market from Tile of Spain’s perspective.
According to Fasan, the U.S. has become a critical market for the Spanish manufacturing segment. As such, product development, marketing and education have turned to focus on North American needs.
Data showed that Tile of Spain has grown to be 18.5% of U.S. market imports by value, making it the second highest—almost one-fifth of the market. It is also the third highest by volume—almost one-sixth of market—at 16.9%. The U.S. is now the second top consumer of tile produced in Spain—France being No. 1.
“These numbers are incredible given the bearish trend in the U.S. market in terms of imports, which are down 7.4% by value and 5.2% by volume,” Fasan said. “We’ve been building this exponential growth for years. Market share has doubled by value and more than doubled by volume since 2015. It means big things in terms of where product development, promotion and marketing are going.”
Fasan added that attendees of Cersaie and Cevisama this year saw anything new was largely focused around U.S. product trends, needs and specifications. “A lot of the promotional activities, education, adoption of standards that our manufacturers are going through are focused on North America’s needs and codes as well,” he added. “The marketing that we’re doing for these programs are largely North American design styles and focused on the trends in our built environ in the U.S.”