By Steven Feldman
PRINCETON, N.J.—For more than 123 years, Congoleum has enjoyed a tradition rich in innovation (chemical embossing, groutable resilient tile, the incorporation of the combination of nylon and aluminum oxide into a wearlayer, etc.). That position continues this fall with what the company is calling a new resilient category: flexible sheet flooring.

The category debuts with 18 SKUs under the moniker AirStep Evolution SDS, the second generation in Congoleum’s AirStep series launched last year. It boasts the company’s proprietary UltraTec construction, which blends the best of traditional felt-back and fiberglass construction, said Dennis Jarosz, senior vice president of sales and marketing. In fact, he believes this is the best-engineered floor in the industry.

Why? It starts with the construction. AirStep Evolution is a cushioned, heavyweight product with Congoleum’s limestone composite backing system, which offers installation advantages. First, flexibility: The floor can be installed either loose laid, full spread or perimeter adhered. Second, the thickness allows it to hide subfloor imperfections. “It can be installed over almost any subfloor under almost any set of conditions,” Jarosz said. “It will lay flat because it has felt sandwiched in the middle instead of fiberglass.” The advantage over fiberglass, he said, is that felt can expand and contract during seasonal changes. Thus, it will not buckle even over wood subfloors when loose laid or perimeter installed.

AirStep Evolution also has Congoleum’s Stain Defense System (SDS), incorporated into the wearlayer for easy maintenance. Spills clean up quickly with a damp mop. The urethane wearlayer also contains aluminum oxide for resistance to wear and silver for antibacterial protection guarding against mold, mildew and alkali.

AirStep Evolution also has an aesthetic story. The four designs include Terrance, a random paver look in five colors; Colonial Plank, featuring a rustic, distressed look in three hues; Tuscan Paver, a 6 x 6, multi-tonal block design in four colors; and Rapolano Tile featuring the look of quarried stone in six colors.

Within each design is a color story that “makes sense,” according to Leonard Ludovico, vice president of product styling and design. “We are making a mass market product that you are able to customize. We must make sure that everything we do is going to coordinate.”

Specifically, Ludovico is paying close attention to brown. “The world is going brown,” he said. “Everything you see is from off white to brown. And it’s not moving. It’s gotten redder and more chocolate like. Browns are soothing. If you think about what’s going on with the economy in this country, we need to feel secure. Anyone buying a product is doing so with the mindset that she doesn’t know when she will purchase another one.”

Given the installation, maintenance and aesthetic story, Congoleum has high expectations for AirStep Evolution. “We expect Evolution to do for the flexible flooring market what Ultima did for the felt-backed market when we introduced that in 2000,” Jarosz said. “Ultima became one of the bestselling, high-end sheet products of all time.”

The timing of the Evolution introduction is a continuation of Congoleum’s strategy to unveil its next-year intros in advance of its competition. “The idea is for retailers to get the benefit of these introductions for the entire year,” Jarosz said. Samples ship in early November and will be housed in standard Congoleum sheet displays as well as AirStep displays.

Evolution comes with a lifetime warranty against wear and manufacturing defects and 25 years on “just about everything else,” Jarosz said. Suggested retail price is between $2.25 and $2.50 a square foot.

In conjunction with the launch is a retailer spiff that runs until Jan. 31, 2010. The purchase of every two rolls of Evolution earns a Sharp 32-inch LCD HDTV. Every five rolls earns a 42-inch TV and every 10 rolls earns a 60-inch TV. Roll purchases can be redeemed for any combination of awards.

Other updates

AirStep Plus: Two wood oak looks were added to the lineup— a chestnut and a golden brown. “We had our entire sales force send in real wood samples so we could determine the most popular colors in the wood family,” Ludovico said. “The two colors we selected are dependable and timeless.”

Prelude: Four new designs were added to this builder product. The idea was to stick with the basics, the neutrals, to allow consumers to change anything in the room and still coordinate with the floor.

Fast Track: Four 9 x 9 patterns and two 12 x 12s were added to this urethane-coated, one step upgrade from Prelude. Introduced last year, Jarosz said the line is gaining traction at retail after being a rolls-only product for builder and property management for the first eight or nine months. “For a product line less than a year old with limited SKUs, it is doing quite well.”

Ludivico was raving about the line’s depth of color “that we never have been able to do before.” He was particularly excited about a new copper color that has been extremely successful in DuraCeramic.