Las Vegas—The wood flooring sector is not going to sit idly by while look-alike alternatives such as laminate and LVP continue to eat hardwood’s lunch. While many of the laminate, SPC and hybrid/rigid core products aim to deliver more value to the consumer, a significant portion of products showcased at Surfaces 2024 targeted the upper range of the flooring market—a place where many competing hard surfaces fear to tread.
It’s all part of an initiative, hardwood suppliers agree, to further separate the hardwood flooring category from the entry-level, me-too brigade while giving distributors and specialty retailers a wider array of products that generate much higher margins and, by extension, bigger profits.
Case in point are the latest additions to the ever-expanding AHF Products lineup. The company is broadening its popular Dogwood Densified Wood product portfolio with a Bruce-branded Dogwood collection. Not to be outdone, the Robbins brand gets a boost with Timber Legends, which boasts eye-catching rustic visuals, including a heart pine offering.
“Heart pine was really what America was built from,” said Milton Goodwin, vice president. “These trees were 300, 400 or 500 years old. Unfortunately, our forefathers cut most of them down and so it’s very difficult today to get that product. What we’re able to do is mimic that visual but make the product much stronger using our densification process. A typical pine floor on the Janka scale is about 600; we can bring that up to 2600.”
On the solid side, AHF Products showcased its Prime Harvest Elite collection—what Brian Parker, vice president of product management, bills as a “whole-home” program. That means consumers can literally select one color and install that color on virtually every level of the home. This, he said, is due to the product’s availability across a range of constructions and platforms.
AHF is not the only supplier tweaking its product assortment to bring retailers and consumers back to hardwood. Mannington is leveraging its competitive position as well. “We’ve been doing this for almost 40 years,” said John Hammel, senior product director, wood and laminate. “We’ve got a strong legacy that we continue to build on, style and design leadership since 1986. Second, we have been intentionally building up our hardwood offering, bolstering our line to where we now have European white oak at every price point. And third, is our handcrafted, unique species.”
Specifically, Hammel is referring to Pacaya mesquite, which is sourced from Central America, drained of its sap and treated by local artisans. Once milled, every plank is then stained by hand. This labor-intensive process results in random variations not easily replicated.
“As you move that tap over and pull the sap out of the tree, the tree heals itself, creating some of these unique character features that you really can’t get any other way,” Hammel explained. “So, visually, you have something that’s very unique that retailers can offer to the consumer. It costs us a little more, but it’s worth the investment and it’s a great story.”
Another new eye-catching introduction comes from RIVA Spain, the designer-oriented hardwood flooring brand that first made its mark in the U.S. at Surfaces 2023. While it has expanded its total offering to include materials such as tile, wall cladding and even decorative moss, hardwood remains its forte.
“This year we’re launching a collection called Tierra, a European white oak product that’s organically colored but in a very subtle way,” said Borja Iglesias, RIVA CEO. “It comes in five beautiful hues in a character grade inspired by nature. And with a width of 8 inches and varying lengths up to 8 feet, it’s perfect for any project.”
While some suppliers are enhancing their finishes and surface textures to entice consumers, others are focusing on keeping it simple. Case in point is a new line of unfinished solid and engineered products from Canada-based Wickham Hardwood. According to Paul Rezuke, VP of sales, U.S., it’s all about satisfying end-user demand.
“What we’re seeing in our market—especially in the Northeast—is greater demand for a cleaner, unfinished look,” he said. “More and more we’re finding consumers want more of a natural visual in their hardwood flooring products.”
Initially available in 10 SKUs, the new unfinished collection is ready to ship.
While some hardwood exhibitors showcased new collections in their entirety, others saw Surfaces 2024 as sort of a “testing ground” to gauge retailer and distributor interest in some of the new products they’ve been working on. Such was the case with Johnson Hardwood, which is putting more emphasis on its hardwood roots. Ditto for the stylish, high-end Provenza brand whose booth was inundated with as-yet-unnamed products.
“Our intention this year was to bounce around some ideas for our dealers and distributors to see what they would respond to,” said Jon Ousley, vice president of sales and distribution at Johnson.
Performance enhanced
Yes, aesthetics are key when it comes to developing winning hardwood flooring products—but so is performance. That’s precisely where Mohawk is focusing its attention at Surfaces this year, courtesy of its enhancements to its signature TecWood line, which is getting a refresh for the new year.
“Consumers want the beauty of wood with the durability that can withstand their family’s everyday lifestyle,” said David Moore, Mohawk’s senior product director. “While there are many alternatives to wood on the market, nothing looks more like wood than wood itself. That is why we created TecWood. We are updating messaging this year to focus on the product’s features and benefits while offering key differentiators that RSAs can highlight to set TecWood apart from other wood products and wood alternatives.”
(Look for more Surfaces wood coverage in upcoming editions of FCNews.)
