Jackson Hole, Wyo.—Mohawk is seeking to “revolutionize” the resilient flooring market with a pair of innovations it claims are true game changers. And if early returns are any indication, the largest flooring manufacturer in the world may have struck gold.
According to Jeff Meadows, president of Mohawk Residential, it’s a new day dawning for a company that may have initially lagged in resilient. “We’ve gotten a lot better in the last two or three years,” he said. Now it has its sights set on the same leadership position it enjoys in many other flooring categories. “We’ve shown these products to some dealers and they think they’re unbelievable.”
The two products separately address what Seth Arnold, vice president, residential marketing, said are the biggest unmet needs in the resilient market: style and sustainability. This resilient revolution answers the call just as Mohawk has done in every other flooring category.
“Much of the research we’ve done with millennials reveal the top two attributes they think of with LVT is that it’s durable and easy to maintain,” Arnold said. “They give it the lowest scores for style and sustainability. So, we see that as a huge opportunity to lean in and differentiate our products.”
To address the style issue, Mohawk is taking a page from its wood/laminate playbook and bringing its patented Signature technology to resilient. “We revolutionized beauty in wood/laminate with this technology,” Arnold said.
As such, the new SolidTech Premier with Signature HDX has an even higher definition color process for zero loss of color clarity. He said this is especially significant with white floors. “With traditional LVT, when you try to bring a whitewashed look the wear layer tends to distort those colors. Now we solved that problem. Signature HDX will have the highest degree of color clarity of any products in the market. And you still get that Signature texture.”
Mohawk is positioning SolidTech Premier with Signature HDX as the best-looking SPC on the market. Retail price points will range from about $4.49 to $5.49, lower than WPC but higher than RevWood. And that’s OK with Arnold. “There are lots of consumers walking through the door asking for waterproof vinyl,” he said. “Some RSAs will try to convince the consumer they want something else. Others will say, ‘If that is what you want, I want to give you that.’ Rigid vinyl plank is the largest category in flooring. There’s a tremendous amount of volume to be had.”
While the visuals are similar, HDX will provide even more color clarity than RevWood. The product is currently being made in Belgium but Mohawk will be bringing that technology to its U.S. plants rapidly.
The power of PureTech
The issue of sustainability will be addressed with the brand-spanking-new PureTech, a PVC-free SPC, which Mohawk is positioning as a sustainable alternative to WPC and SPC. In fact, Mohawk will market PureTech as its own category—RPC, an acronym for renewable polymer core. “We have seen some evolution from WPC to SPC,” Arnold said. “Now there’s this emerging group [of products] that some call ECO. We believe RPC is the right way of positioning it.”
While PureTech is not the first PVC-free product on the market, one of the ways Mohawk is differentiating theirs is by making it more economically viable for the masses. “PVC-free products tend to be more expensive,” Arnold said. “We have made the deliberate decision to go after that $2.99 to $3.99 retail price point. We want to build this category at the volume portion of the market. We don’t want to be on the top end.”
Also deliberate is to push the sustainable story at a time when environmental concerns are front and center, particularly with millennials and Gen Z. And it’s an easy story for RSAs to tell. “If you are looking for a resilient floor, we have a PVC-free waterproof product that is made from renewable organic material and 70% recycled content,” Arnold said. “There is a sensitivity to PVC; PVC-free resonates.”
What’s more, every purchase of PureTech contributes to stopping ocean plastic in partnership with Plastic Bank. “Studies show 93% of consumers want to do business with a brand that takes a stand on the environment,” Arnold said. “People care about two issues: climate change and ocean plastic. There is 60%-70% awareness of those two problems. In fact, ocean plastic has become a greater concern amongst the general population than climate change. It’s highly emotional. People have a sense of guilt. They know they need to do something.”
Despite a highly successful SolidTech line, Mohawk believes PureTech will result in incremental business rather than cannibalize its SPC franchise. Why? Because the pie is so large. “We have so much opportunity to grow our market share in SPC,” Arnold stated. “The emergence of these environmentally friendly alternatives are only going to offer more choice.” As an example, he cited how SPC not only took share from WPC but grew the size of the pie. “Think about carpet. You had nylon, then polyester, then triexta. Three choices. There is enough space in the rigid plank market for three very differentiated value propositions.”
Adding to the sustainability story is the fact that PureTech is domestically made in Thomasville, N.C.
While sustainability will be PureTech’s calling card, its visuals will also stand out. “Traditional SPC in that $2.99 to $3.99 price point will be an all-over emboss with a beveled edge,” Arnold said. “Everything in RPC will be embossed in register with a natural edge that has a more aesthetically pleasing look. So these products will have a better look than what’s currently available in the market at this price point.”
As mentioned earlier, Mohawk realized right away it had a winner in PureTech. “It’s the fastest growing product that I’ve ever been involved with in my 25 years at Mohawk,” Arnold said. “We sold more in 30 days than we thought we would sell in six months.” Why? At the end of the day, PureTech checks a whole lot of boxes. “The first two things people are looking for is a beautiful product that’s going to last a long time,” Arnold said. “We check those two boxes. It’s got the WetProtect. It’s also going to have a 15-year to lifetime pet-scratch warranty. You can’t get a pet-scratch warranty until you get to the $6 or $7 range. So you get scratch, beauty, waterproof and, by the way, it’s planet friendly. It’s the right message and the right positioning for the future buyer.”