Orlando, Fla.—With the newly-opened luxurious Gay-lord Palms Resort & Convention serving as the backdrop, the National Wood Flooring Association (NWFA) held its 17th Annual Education Conference & 2002 Wood Flooring Expo here from April 18 to 20. Approximately 475 exhibits filled the Expo Hall, representing more than 300 companies. A total of more than 2,600 attendees—an increase of 10% over last year’s convention in Palm Springs, Calif.—made their way to the event, billed by the association as the largest gathering of wood flooring products and services ever assembled under one roof.

Aside from a numerous amount of new products, the convention featured many topics facing the industry, including Internet issues, effective leadership, customer focus and employee retention as the event was filled with various educational seminars. Also on display were entries from the association’s annual Floor of the Year competition in the Floor of the Year Gallery, the new Design Installation Competition which highlighted on-site installations of this year’s two winning designs, and a Demonstration stage featuring exhibitor products.

One of the highlights of the convention was the unveiling to members of the NWFA/NAFCD White Paper and Road Map (FCNews, April 15/22), two tools expected to help businesses enhance their overall effectiveness and improve profitability. By the looks of the event, the wood flooring category, one of the industry’s strongest over the last few years, continues to be very solid as the year unfolds. “The industry is very upbeat,” said Ed Korczak, NWFA’s executive director. “The people here are looking for a year that will give them a 3% to 4% increase over last year. “The concept of the White Paper was,” he added, “to come up with a program that would examine where the distributor was, where it is today and where it needs to be three years from now to continue its growth. The White Paper does this and is followed up by a Road Map and Tool Kit.

“The Road Map analyzes operations, sales management and inventory management,” he explained, “and features a self-diagnostic test which helps the distributor to know which of those three areas he needs to concentrate on most. The Tool Kit has all the forms it needed to implement any of those ideas. So it’s a complete package that the distributor can use to really expand its business with.”

Trends prevalent throughout the show mirrored what is going on throughout the wood flooring industry as an increasing amount of companies offered more exotic species and rustic, distressed looks as well as wider planks. “This was one of the better shows I’ve been to,” said Paul Raffa of the Endurance Floor Co. in Miami, who said many larger wood companies are doing things to their products to make them look more like the smaller companies’ reclaimed, naturally distressed offerings. “There are many companies doing a lot more hand scraping, and giving the floor that patina look. There were a lot more older looking floors this year than last year. “In this business,” added Raffa, “it’s something that has become very popular the last couple years. The bigger companies are starting to get into it whereas before it was just the smaller ones like Patina Old World Flooring that does handscraping. I like all the reclaimed products which I sell a lot of at Endurance because I like that look. Another reason I like it is, you’re not cutting down a tree, you’re not depleting the forest. You are using something that was already cut.”

 “The handscraped, rustic look is very hot right now,” said George Goodwin, president of the Goodwin Heart Pine Co. which recovers its antique wood from rivers. “It seems to be very much the tone of things right now. “We’re a very green company,” he added. “We recover old logs out of various rivers in the Southeast, some that were cut down and lost while being rafted down river to saw mills more than 100 years ago. We’re beyond sustainable harvest— we’re not cutting any trees.” “We’ve always provided this distressed, rustic look,” said Jerome Maddock of the Mountain Lumber Co., a supplier of domestic and European antique wood flooring. “It’s very popular right now. We’ve seen some of the larger manufacturers of the more traditional flooring are all displaying something like that now.

We do antique woods so ours is not tricked up to look distressed, it comes to us distressed. I think it’s definitely a trend right now. I’ve got clients looking for just this type of thing and they are talking about the distressed floors not the more formal ones. “We reclaim our wood from big industrial buildings, old barns and even old cider vats from England,” he explained. “All the work is still left in it. We get it in timber form and then re-saw and re-mill into flooring. We’ve been doing this for 28 years and we’ve never cut down a tree.”

Some companies, like custom wood floor producer Kentucky Wood Floors, are offering prefinished products. “People know us for our custom products,” said John Stern, president. “Our newer offerings, especially our prefinished products are drawing attention. Even though we have been doing our own finishings for two years now, some people are not as aware of it as they should be. “We’ve introduced a new theme, A Breed Apart, that capitalizes on our Kentucky thoroughbred heritage,” he explained, “but we think we’re also different in terms of species, patterns, textures and finishes. We used to outsource our finishing but could not control its quality or scheduling so we brought it in-house and I think the fact we are finishing for other manufacturers must indicate that we have a pretty good finish.”

“A lot of our rustic products are getting looked at during the show,” said Rick Jones of Columbia Flooring. “We’ve had quite a few questions on our darker, more exotic looks as well.” “The people coming into our booth seem to be enjoying seeing something else available other than oak,” said BR-111’s Daniel Pagano, referring to the company’s darker, more exotic offerings. “We carry, I believe, the most extensive, exotic line in the industry. We have 10 different Brazilian species as well as one Australian species people seem to be interested in.”

As far as exotic looks, Dorothy Wong, vice president of marketing for Ecowood Bamboo Flooring, enjoyed the reception the company received at the show. As one of several bam-boo companies displaying at the event, D&M Bamboo Flooring Co., the mill that produces Eco-wood, believed that educating dealers at the show about its product was key. “Our product is easy to install,” she said. “It goes down the same way as any hardwood flooring. It can be glued down, nailed down, it can be floated depending on which type you are looking for. We also have a longstrip system which can be floated or stapled down. “Bamboo flooring is not a trend,” she added. “Over the years it has proven it is going to stay because of its high performance.

The number of suppliers keep popping up but a lot of education needs to be disseminated because it is not categorized by Grade 1, Grade 2, like a lot of hardwood flooring. Bamboo itself is still a very generic term to most people. Most don’t understand that because of the process of manufacturing that each brand is different. “As the years go by,” Wong continued, “we will see bamboo going into different applications. Aside from the traditional residential, we may see more of it go into the commercial and hospitality areas. Because of its moisture-resistance, bamboo will be considered in the spa and sports arenas. Because of the diversity of the product, we see healthy growth ahead. “It’s a green product as well,” she added, “so that is in the backs of peoples’ minds also. Because it grows back so quickly, the harvesting issue is an important one for the future.”

Other companies that drew attention at the show were Lauzon with its Polynium+ with Sunshield finish, designed to protect against advanced yellowing effects of the sun and Mirage, with its many prefinished exotic offerings. As for what is coming up for the NWFA, Korczak noted, three more chapters will be added to the Road Map—human relations, profit enhancers and performers. “We are working on them now.” Finally, scheduled to open later this year in its home city of St. Louis, NWFA will open a brand new 20,000-sq.-ft. International Education/Training Center to educate mechanics from around the country on installation techniques. “The quality and profitability of the industry can only increase when education and proper training are made available,” said Korczak. “We hope to provide both with this facility.” He also said an agreement has been reached with the International Standards & Training Alliance (Install) to use its recently opened Las Vegas training facility (FCNews, April 1/8) for installation education and training purposes as well. NWFA’s next annual convention is slated for April 9 to 12, 2003 in St. Louis. For more information on the association, call 636/391-5161.