When HF Design’s breakthrough AquaProof laminate made its official debut in the U.S. market in 2023, the company had high hopes for the waterproof line. And with good reason: the product was loaded with high-performance attributes, enhanced visual characteristics reflective of the modern era of laminate and other bells and whistles. Fast-forward to today, the product is still making waves, as evidenced by the positive feedback from distributors who have embraced the line since day one.
Case in point is Big D Floor Covering Supplies, a Top 20 distributor that took on the AquaProof line about two and a half years ago. “It was one of our most successful launches,” said Ron Anderson, product manager. “The styles and colors hit the market at just the right time on the West Coast—not only for retailers but also for the builder market.”
Indeed, the positive response among Big D Supplies’ customers helped fuel end-user interest. Retailer and builder customers alike not only gravitated toward the fashion-forward designs, according to Anderson, but they also cited the product’s durable, AC4-rated finish as well as the line’s 100-hour moisture warranty and its impressive low core swell rate. “Consumers want a product that can be installed in several places such as kitchens, bathrooms and laundry rooms, and still perform,” he explained. AquaProof checks all those boxes, he added.
Due to the success of AquaProof, Big D decided to launch AquaProof XL—a longer/wider/beefier version—as an upgrade option. The results were as expected. “AquaProof XL turned out to be another strong launch,” Anderson stated. “We had an overwhelming response to both collections.”
But perhaps the best part about the initial AquaProof launch, according to Anderson, was the timing. “Because we hit the market at a time laminates were just ramping up, the success of AquaProof helped us grow our business in the laminate space,” he noted. “And as we saw SPC products losing steam, these two collections helped us grow our business in all of our markets.”
Big D Supplies isn’t alone in its assessment of AquaProof’s acceptance in the market. Jackson, Fla.-based Cain & Bultman also reports having success with the line. For Paul Walker, the company’s president, the marketing and distribution of AquaProof was actually his second go-round with the line, given his past affiliation with Diamond W Distributors.
“I’ve been involved in the launch of AquaProof twice because when I was with Diamond W,” he told FCNews. “That was right about the beginning of when the laminate rocket ship was starting to take off again in the U.S. When we launched it three years ago with Diamond W, it was probably the most exciting launch that I’ve ever seen in my time in the flooring business.”
Now with Cain & Bultman, Walker is banking on history to repeat itself. “Since I’ve been at Cain & Bultman—and we launched it probably about six months to a year before I came here—it’s been the same experience: the line absolutely took off,” he said. “In fact, we definitely underestimated, from an inventory point of view, how strong the demand for the line was going to be. It probably took us six to nine months to actually catch up to where we were not constantly filling back orders for customers.”
One of the key attributes of AquaProof—which Cain & Bultman markets on a private-label basis as RightWood—is the styling behind the designs. “Alex [Shaoulpour] and the HF Design team are among the best in the industry at getting the visuals right,” Walker explained. “When a consumer goes into a retail showroom, they’re looking at the visual. It’s a style choice, a fashion choice for them. They have this vision in their mind about how it’s going to look in their house. And from a retailer’s point of view, and particularly when it comes to all of the things that happen in the SPC market, they want to know that they’ve got a product that’s going to perform in less-than-ideal situations. It has really been just a fantastic product line and an incredible product launch.”
The sentiment was much the same at Wood Dale, Ill.-based All Surfaces—also a top 20 distributor—which has had the AquaProof brand in its lineup for nearly two years. Over that time period, the line has grown to become one of its most active hard surface categories. “It was one of our top product lines for growth and volume in a long time,” said Steve Rosenthal, VP of marketing at All Surfaces. “Our customers love the product, the colors and the display—and they’ve been selling it.”
Oddly enough, several years prior to onboarding the AquaProof line, which All Surfaces also private labels as “Casabella,” the company had not participated in the laminate flooring segment in any meaningful way. In the not-too-distant past, many imported laminate flooring products—most of which were subject to surcharges—represented a challenge for U.S. distributors from a cost perspective. The application of these surcharges, along with freight, put imported laminate at a cost disadvantage compared to domestically produced flooring.
However, those dynamics began to dramatically shift as product quality issues with competitive hard surfaces such as low-price SPC began to arise. That opened up an opportunity for laminate, which had made strides in the areas of water-resistance and visual realism. At the same time, laminate became more readily available, helping distributors build up local inventories. That, in turn, touched off a resurgence. And that’s when All Surfaces pounced. “We foresaw the trend toward laminate picking up steam again, for the second or third time since it was invented,” Rosenthal recalled. “Our laminate program was non-existent until we took on AquaProof. It went from 0-60, so to speak.”
Much like Big D Supplies and Cain & Bultman, All Surfaces attributes the ongoing interest in AquaProof to its broad appeal among floor covering retailers, consumers and even Main Street clients. “It’s all about the colors, the patterns, the overall quality and the fact that it’s waterproof,” Rosenthal said.
HF Design, according to Rosenthal, also has a knack for building on a good thing to make it even better. To that end, the company is in the process of expanding its offerings to include AquaProof XL, thereby giving customers a trade-up option. Earlier this month, in fact, All Surfaces began receiving its AquaProof XL displays. “The guys at HF Design do a phenomenal job of merchandising and marketing the product,” he said.
