Philadelphia—Durato USA recently combined the opening of its new showroom here with a 10th anniversary celebration as close to 125 customers and guests—ranging from architects and designers to contractors and developers to investment bankers and brand ambassadors—made the trip here from as far as Florida. One could argue it was a coming out party of sorts.
The event commemorated how far Durato has come in the last decade. After making a name for itself in the builder community and as a reputable OEM supplier, the company is now setting its sights on building its brand in specialty retail and commercial. And why not? Its products check all the boxes when it comes to quality and design, backed up by a strong commitment to servicing its customers.
Emily Carr, creative director and chief sales officer, referred to this as an evolution. “It’s also the emerging of Durato into a stronger force in both the residential and commercial sectors,” she said. “We created this gorgeous showroom to house both residential retail sales and commercial contract sales. We’re branching out, launching new collections that are more strategic for our contractors, builders, developers, designers and retailers. This party celebrates the culmination of all that.”
If you’re not familiar with Durato, you almost certainly will be soon. It’s not your run-of-the-mill supplier. In fact, there is a whole lot that separates it from other importers.
“We’re definitely not the status quo,” said Jae Pyon, Durato’s co-founder and president, acknowledging how far Durato has come. “When Durato started up, nobody wanted to do business with us. We were just a new ‘me-too’ product at the time and had our share of challenges. But a couple of people gave us a chance and brought us into heavy commercial new construction projects and said, ‘Make us a better product than what’s currently available on the market.’ So we spent a lot of money researching with architects, developers, scientists and engineers to create the perfect floor. About eight years ago we invented a new type of stone polymer composite for the low-end new construction market and also developed a new wood composite called Nu Wood for the high-end new construction market. Both did phenomenal in the market.”
An eco-conscious approach
What made them different? Proprietary ingredients, according to Pyon. “We didn’t use the same ingredients everybody else uses,” he explained. “And then we encapsulated all those ingredients using a new technology. Then we combined new wear layers and a new locking system that we developed based on the Unilin and Välinge systems. We pay royalty fees to the patent holders, but we modified it to make it faster and easier to install for new construction applications.”
Those ingredients, coming from mines and chemical labs “that we trust 100%,” has led to Durato products being LEED 4.1 certified. More important, Durato claims to be the only flooring manufacturer in the industry that has achieved a Prop 65 compliant rating across all its products. Prop 65 stemmed from the Clean Water Act back in the 1970s. “It essentially means that none of the ingredients in any of our products contribute to cancer-causing hazards,” Carr said.
Durato went to great lengths to ensure its products achieved the certification. “When the Prop 65 standard first came out, every factory said no product meets the [Prop 65] requirements and everyone will just carry a label that says we may cause cancer,” Pyon said. “We didn’t want that sticker. We said we could prove that our products have no VOCs and won’t cause cancer. So we worked with the labs to figure out what test method could be created so we could see that our products would not off gas and cause cancer. After three successful tests, they finally gave us the certificate. We also achieved Red List Free on Nu Wood for high-end construction, so our customers are getting a higher-end product.”
Betting on quality
Aside from being Prop 65 compliant, Durato also claims to have quality control that rivals any company in the industry. Why? “It’s the way we run our production lines,” he noted. “We actually bonus our engineers to stop production if they question something related to quality. Most manufacturers bonus on production. They want as many thousands of square feet to get run in a day. We bonus on the stops to make sure our quality is above and beyond.” Also related to quality, all Durato products are applicable to unit-based projects: multifamily, assisted living, hotel rooms, she said.
Then there’s the design aspect. “I’ve worked in custom carpet design customization for over 15 years,” said Carr, who counts Masland and Parterre among her stops along the way. “When a Durato designer gets ahold of something [like a piece of wood], we send that to our team, and we all sit together online and tweak the pattern until it’s absolutely perfect and authentic to the true characteristics of that wood. We take so much time and care in our visuals down to the smallest nuances, like the way the light reflects the undertone of the primary color or the way the knot is colored against the grain. That sets us apart.”
Service comes first
Quality and design are supported by an extremely high level of service. “If someone has a claim, I’ve seen the owners themselves go out to jobsites and take a deeper look,” she said. “They are always right there to do whatever needs to be done to get it fixed. They prioritize the solution over the problem. And then internally, we have an incredible customer service team. We have tech specialists, we have design specialists, we have sales specialists, we have marketing specialists that will help create pieces for our OEMs and help people put together pallets. We have an entire in-house design team that will help our developers curate finishes for their buildings. Maybe they don’t have a design team; we’ll jump in and go the extra mile with them. Or maybe that developer is trying to hit a certain budget. We can value engineer product to hit acertain price.”
Pyon noted that Durato grew exponentially in the new construction market due to its high level of service during COVID-19. “When everybody was delivering late, we always delivered on time,” he said. “Our on-time delivery rate during the COVID-19 period was 98%—the best in the industry at the time. We know this because nobody else was shipping. And when we couldn’t get our stuff on a boat, we air shipped it to our clients. Because the last thing we wanted was for the general contractors and the construction companies to hear from us that we can’t deliver on time. That’s the reason why customers like Related trusted us during that timeframe. They don’t buy directly from us, obviously; they buy through one of our clients. But we developed those relationships. We always delivered on time.”
Lastly, Durato goes direct and has fewer advertising expenses than others. “We pass on the savings,” Pyon said. “So you’re buying a high-quality product at a lesser price. We’re definitely not the cheapest. There will be some fly by night operations that’s sell $0.05 cheaper than us consistently. But you’re not getting the best quality product. You’re not getting the best locking system. Bottom line: We deliver a high-quality product on time at a fair price.”
Why should retailers take on the brand? For starters, Durato is not everywhere; there’s a degree of territorial exclusivity. “There is less competition with the brand,” Pyon said. Equally important, he said, is that retailers get a product that has been proven in some of the worst construction environments throughout America. “We have never had a failure,” he said. “The reason is because our products are built better.”
Then there is the service component. “We are not perfect,” Pyon said. “What makes us special is we will always take care of customers. We will do whatever it takes to make the customer happy.”
SPC comprises the bulk of Durato’s offerings—72 SKUs across five collections with matching moldings and stair nose—although there are some glue-down LVP collections, laminate and carpet. The SPC lines run from 4.2mm up to 7mm. Products are warehoused in Philadelphia; Ft. Pierce, Fla., and Houston. Carr said Durato will be opening up more warehouse locations later this year and next.
