Daltile, Mannington and Karndean spice up presentations
By Ken Ryan
As part of Connect 2020, executives representing more than a dozen flooring companies get their turn to pitch Alliance Flooring retailers on new products and special pricing. This virtual buying and networking event—like the in-person Alliance conferences—share some things in common: informative and fun.
On day four of Connect 2020, representatives from Daltile, Mannington and Karndean turned on the charm in their product presentations while getting their messages across.
Following is a brief recap.
Daltile
Using prime beef terminology, Daltile is giving flooring dealers the “center cut” when it comes to its new floor and wall tile products. “That’s right, we cut off all the fat and are giving you the best part of the meat,” said Patrick Warren, vice president of dealer sales, who was joined in his presentation by Tony Wright, director of dealer sales.
The 12 new offerings, which can be mixed and matched, include Crema, a 13 x 13 format with a travertine look; Oak Wood, a 6 x 24 wood visual; Sky Grey, a product targeted to both residential and Main Street applications; and Pebble and Gloss White, both 6 x 18 wall tile offerings.
“We have floor tile, wall tile—we’re trying to give you something that is going to work in your store today,” Warren said.
Daltile also unveiled a new Color Tile Home Gallery display that houses 16 boards—all private label—that include wood, marble, concrete and stone looks. “It’s a product mix you can sell all day long,” Wright told dealers.
Mannington
“Live from New York…I mean hot Salem, N.J., from the headquarters of Mannington Mills Inc., I am your host, Jay Keelson of Mannington.”
And with that, Keelson, vice president of national accounts for Mannington, presented a nearly nine-minute video outlining the benefits of top brands Adura, American Restoration and Realta. He also reiterated Mannington’s commitment to the independent specialty flooring dealer.
Kopelson promoted the Adura Selling Solutions display, which features 80 styles, three collections and one solution “to give your customers the best-looking, best-performing floor.”
The Mannington executive encouraged dealers to “maximize” Adura Max, a premium-priced WPC product on which retailers can make good margin; as well as Adura Rigid and Adura Flex, the latter a traditional glue-down plank and tile.
“And don’t forget about laminate—it’s coming back and it’s pretty hot,” Kopelson said, as he touted Mannington’s Restoration collection of waterproof laminate. Anthology, the latest addition to Restoration, combines the three most widely used species in flooring; white oak, hickory and maple. Each is unique in individual character, grain and color variation. Twenty unique plank visuals are offered with Anthology. “Please do not give up on laminate,” Kopelson said.
Karndean
John Callahan, national accounts manager, welcomed Alliance Flooring members into his home (virtually) in the Chicago area as part of his presentation on Karndean products.
As he poured a cup of coffee, Callahan commented, “The thing is, business is pretty good right now. We’re all finding that business is better than we thought it was going to be [considering] all the social distancing and shutdowns. And even though traffic might be lower and people might be hesitant to shop, when they do shop they are buying, so the closing rates seem to be off the charts—which bodes really well for all of us.”
Callahan offered members a slew of pallet specials on products including Knight Tile, offering a 12-mil wear layer; and Van Gogh, a 20-mil product he described as a “commercial workhorse.” Both are available in rigid core formats.
Special deals were also offered on Korlok Reserve in a 2g locking system, and the step up Korlok Select, which features a
5g locking mechanism and wider format.
FCNews.net will be providing daily coverage of Connect 2020 through Aug. 7.