March 5/12, 2018: Volume 33, Issue 19
By Reginald Tucker
To many retailers, Mohawk is regarded as a supplier of all manner of hard- and soft-surface products, including hardwood, laminate, LVT/P, ceramic and carpet, to name a few. But the supplier is looking to remind dealers that it also provides a vast array of accessories.
Among Mohawk’s line of complementary installation products are: transitions and moldings, flooring adhesives, underlayments and care/maintenance items such as cleaning products and tools. “We sell these items for all our products; it’s a full program,” said David Moore, senior director of accessories.
But these are not me-too products, according to Mohawk. Rather, the accessories program is built on the idea of innovative products that differentiate the company from others in the market. An example of that innovation is a new technology utilized across its moldings/transition programs. This entails a multi-functional molding whereby the installer is able to handle multiple types of transition needs with one piece of inventory.
“For example, in a typical installation you’ll need a T-molding when you’re bridging floors of equal heights; a reducer when you’re going down to a thinner floor; or an end molding when you’re going up to a sliding glass door,” Moore explained. “We offer a product called a ‘5-in-1’ molding that we have in our laminate, hardwood and vinyl assortment. In essence, it’s one item that needs to be inventoried, one item that needs to be ordered or sold; and the installer can convert it to any configuration he needs.”
Being a full-service, vertically integrated supplier also brings other advantages compared to the host of standalone accessory suppliers in the field, according to Moore. By managing the accessories programs holistically, he said, the company is able to leverage best practices from all the different groups and provide focus and consolidation. “As our sales force goes out to sell those products holistically, having that single point of contact and consistency throughout all the different flooring types is something we thought was very important to our customers.”
This strategy applies to other accessory products, not just moldings. Take Mohawk’s V 1 glue, which is engineered to address different scenarios. “This adhesive, depending on the way it’s installed, acts as a pressure-sensitive, but it can also be a permanent bond adhesive,” Moore explained. “It’s an innovative product that will accomplish everything you need it to do, but at the end of the day it’s still just one item.”
Technological bells and whistles aside, Mohawk’s accessory products and add-ons also provide an opportunity for retailers to make more money. “Dealers can improve their profitability in a variety of ways—from the multi-functional standpoint, they are able to order less SKUs and keep a lower inventory, which translates into fewer items they need to send out to the job site,” Moore explained. “That means less risk to the dealer in terms of inventory that might go out of style. In addition, from a pure revenue standpoint, accessories provide retailers with an opportunity to really look at their margins and charge a premium for products that offer more innovation and that consumers are going to value.”