Market Offered Something For Everyone Article Number : 516

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Date	2/16/2005 5:26:49 PM
Written By	LGM & Associates Technical Flooring Services
View this article at:	//floorbiz.com/BizResources/NPViewArticle.asp?ArticleID=516
Abstract	Las Vegas—The calendar may have read late January, but for the floor covering industry, the year officially began Jan...
Article	Las Vegas—The calendar may have read late January, but for the floor covering industry, the year officially began Jan. 25 when Surfaces 2005 opened its doors with more than 1,000 exhibitors and three dozen educational workshops and seminars. And for those that made it through the rain, snow and ice that blanketed much of the country, it was worth the trip—whether they were an exhibitor or attendee—as all gave the 16th annual market a rousing two thumbs up on just about every account. Exhibitors of all types and sizes—from every kind of floor covering manufacturer to producers of flooring related accessories; from companies that provided specific services to those which helped solve problems—told FCNews they had one of the best, if not the best market to date. Many even noted the reaction from attendees was so overwhelming they actually ran out of products and promotions and plan on doubling their efforts next year. “It’s been an incredible show, most likely our best yet,” said a smiling Keith Camp-bell, chairman of Manning-ton Mills, as he survey- ed the waves of people swirling around his company’s massive booth. “Things couldn’t be going better.” Tarkett’s Jan Lembgrets and Jim Morando, presidents of the company’s residential and wood divisions, respectively, concur-red: “It has been a very positive experience. The traffic has been good and we’ve been really busy.” This type of response was not just from the larger exhibitors occupying the upstairs show floor, it was echoed by those on the downstairs level. Chad Ogden, president and CEO of software pro-vider, Qfloors, said word of mouth about his company’s easy-to-use program, which will be fully B2B certified by March, was helping to keep his booth very busy. “It’s been great. People are start-ing to figure out the benefits of using B2B software, and they’re hearing how easy our system is to use.” One booth that did not allow executives a moment’s rest, despite being located near the far back corner, was occupied by Bio-Pro Re-search, maker of Urine-Off odor and stain remover. “We are selling over a case an hour and we didn’t come here to sell,” said an exuberant Lanny Fuettere, the company’s spokesman. “Next Surfaces we’re going to double the size of our booth.” Michelle Troop, Surfaces’ show director, said comments gathered by FCNews reflected what she was told during an exhibitor advisory meeting. “Based on the number of preregistrations and hotel rooms booked, we came into this market with high expectations. Our customers are telling us they are having a good show, our educational conference program is up 45% over last year so, overall, we’ve been very pleased with how everything has gone. Everyone is searching for ways to stay competitive and be of more value to their customer, be they manufacturer, distributor or retailer, and Sur-faces is the one place where this can be done.” There are two major factors which make Surfaces unique among industry markets. The first has to due with the fact that every type of floor covering along with any and all accessories and items related to flooring are showcased under one roof. The other component is that bigger is not always more. Both ingredients were in full force at this year’s show. Attendees had access to more products, services and programs than ever before. And, despite the fact carpet still controls the largest percentage of marketshare, followed by the resilient category, those unfamiliar with the industry would think the hard surface segments—wood, laminate and ceramic—accounted for the majority of end user sales based on the sheer number of companies exhibiting these types of products. Hard Products Rule For example, the Sur-faces Show Directory listed nearly 200 companies in the “Hardwood Flooring: Unfin-ished/Prefinsihed” grouping, or roughly 20% of the exhibitors. Yet, this segment has an industry marketshare of approximately 10%. While not numbering as many, both the laminate and ceramic tile categories were represented in a similar fashion with respect to their actual industry marketshare percentages. Despite this discrepancy, the soft side of the industry—from the mills to the fiber suppliers—came to Surfaces with more than beige carpets featuring branded yarns. The following begins FC-News’ recap of some of the trends, products and services seen in the various floor covering categories, as well as looking at some of the many ancillary events that took place at Surfaces. In future issues, we will go more in-depth with the companies highlighted as well as the myriad of others who showed their wares in Las Vegas. Carpet’s New Pattern In response to the hard surface shift taking place in flooring over the past few years, broadloom producers have no doubt gotten the hint and stepped up, offering different patterns, bolder colors, textured looks and even more patterns than ever before. No where was this more evident than at Surfaces, where anything to make the category more desirable to re-tailers and consumers was on display, including new programs and warranties. Beaulieu of America, once again the largest carpet mill at the show, strutted its stuff, letting everyone in the industry know it is back, better than ever. “We spent a great deal of time this past year working on quality and service, not just to have great products at great price points, but to be better able to serve our customers,” explained Mike McAllister, vice president of marketing. The mill’s new Carefree Living Collection, featuring Fiber Essence, was the talk of the Beaulieu booth. “Fiber Essence is a brand new yarn system,” said McAllister. “It is constructed of all filament PET. The other series of new products we have is a Wear Dated II collection, featuring three different weights with 60 colors. These are available as part of the Holleytex Wear Dated Color Selection Center.” Beaulieu’s other new products include four additions to its Laura Ashley program, as well as four designs to its Ultimate Performance program and several add-ons to its Stainmaster collection. Milliken Carpet also had several new products and styles on display in Las Vegas, including Allure, an eight-pattern traditional collection of Oriental, Persian, Isfahan and Jacobean looks. Each design is available in seven to 11 colors for a total of 64 SKUs. Made of Milliken WearOn Nylon 6,6, Allure offers a Straight Set Saxony construction in two price points—$29 and $49 per square yard. “We’ve totally expanded the color pallet,” said Eric Dunkleberg, Milliken’s marketing director. “By coming out with a totally new line of design and color. Dealers from across the nation have responded very well to this. Many of these colors we just did not offer in the past. And with the traditional, Persian and formal looks, it’s not just color but also the design we are ex-panding in our offering.” The classic designs showcase color lines developed by Milliken to meet evolving home fashion trends and predictions by the In-ternational Colour Authority, he noted. Milliken also worked with Invista to study consumer color preferences and channeled these findings into the formation of the new dyes. The result is classic tones as well as emerging color palettes, and ranges in variety from soft, subtle new neutrals to rich, vibrant and saturated colorations. Other new products from Milliken include Pattern Mates II, a 100 SKU collection featuring new neutrals such as sage, warm and cool beiges, camel, sun wheat, winter mint and beeswax. The mill’s Wear-On Nylon 6,6 is used in a casual frieze construction that is available in two price points—$29 and $35 per square yard. “The show has been excellent for us,” said Dixie Home vice president/general manager, Kennedy Frier-son. ‘We’ve gotten a great response to our product introductions. We’ve introduced some new displays. The feedback we have received from everybody has been excellent. We’ve had good traffic, but it’s the quality of the people coming through we’ve been so happy with.” A highlight for Dixie was its Pattern Perspective display. Patterned carpet is one of today’s hottest interior design trends, with large scale motifs especially popular, noted Lisa Hedden, director of marketing for Dixie Home. The new display holds oversized, 36X48-in. swatches. “The large sample size gives patterns the room they need to speak for themselves, and allows con-sumers a comprehensive and immediate impression of the style they are looking for,” she said. “Pattern Perspectives applies the latest concepts in user-friendly design.” The woodgrain and ebony cabinet unit comes equip-ped with 12 swing arms, but can accommodate up to 18. Initially, the display will showcase three Dixie Home Collections: Eclectic, Kensington and Versailles. Pattern Perspectives requires only a little over 10 square feet of floor space. More textures and patterns were available from Stanton Carpet, which introduced 250 SKUs in broadloom and runners. “We are in the decorative end of the business, style and design,” said Jonathan Cohen, executive vice president. “and this year we have come out with even more beautiful goods, including three handmade collections.” One attracting a lot of attention was Rhapsody, a handtufted wool product with silk highlights, five colorways with coordinating runner. Also new is the Provence Collection, featuring two patterns—Madeline Floral and Genevieve Trellis —in a sophisticated, all semi-worsted woven wool loop construction in 12X 6-ft. width and available in five colorways with coordinating Madeline border. Stanton, which last year came out with five SKUs of micro-hook runner, has ex-panded that in 2005, as it debuted a Micro-Hook carpet and runner collection featuring all wool, 13-1/6-ft. wide styles which coordinate with the mill’s micro-hook runners. Stanton showcased two more new micro-hook runner designs in the latest color sophistication in 27- and 32-in. widths. “We’re a niche player,” he explained, “so we are constantly looking for ways to expand the niche. We want to be different and unique, but not too different.” Fiber’s Branded Advantage Invista, which introduced a new homebuyer Web site, also debuted 241 new styles of Stain-master carpet to the more than 1,000 styles it currenty offers. Stainmaster carpet consistently leads the industry in the number of new styles introduced each year,” said Steve Griffith, Invista’s vice president of residential flooring. “This is a true testament to the strength of the Stainmaster brand and the durability and cutting edge style consumers ex-pect from the product.” The Invista booth also welcomed celebrity designer, Vern Yip, formerly of the hit show Trading Spaces, who met with retailers at the booth. His appearance was part of a contest in which one lucky retailer would receive a two-hour, in-store appearance by Yip, designed to help drive traffic to their store. To be eligible, dealers have to sell Stain-master carpet in their store. The Stainmaster Web site, www.newhome.stain master.com, has been developed by Invista for consumers in the process of building a home. The site will allow the new homebuyer to create a home that reflects her personality or interests, and teaches how to roll costs of amenities into her mortgage. The site also provides an easy to follow, step-by-step tour though the most im-portant topics facing a new homebuyer: Selecting a builder and home to fit your lifestyle; The design process: Incorporating style into your new home; Design priorities: the best three upgrades to consider, and Your finished home: tips before you move in. Finally, Invista launched Stainmaster carpet’s annual advertising campaign, which began with ads on-air in late January. “The ads convey the comfort and style of Stainmaster carpet in addition to its superior performance characteristics,” said Gary Johnston, global brand manager for Stainmaster carpet. The broadcast schedule for the Stainmaster carpet ads includes advertising on network and cable stations such as CBS, NBC, HGTV and TLC. Campaign ads will also be featured on nationally syndicated programs such as The Ophra Winfrey Show, The Dr. Phil Show, Jeopardy and Live with Re-gis & Kelly. Over 50% of all ads will run during primetime programming. British Wool made quite a splash at Surfaces as several British and American mills exhibited at the World of British Wool booth. Calhoun, Ga. based, Robertex Associ-ates, exhibiting at the booth for the very first time, introduced its latest British Wool tufted product, Yes Dear, a classic Argyle design in six stylish colors. British Wool carpet manufacturer, Axminster brought a rural touch of England to Las Vegas with Lan-castria, a collection produced ex-clusively for the U.S. market. The collection offers luxurious woven carpets in contemporary styles and a palette of colors inspired by En-gland’s Lancashire countryside. The range features five designs with five different colorways and a collection of eight solid borders in contemporary shades, and all have names of Lancashire’s rural villages and towns. It can be produced in 80/20 Brit-ish Wool, in a heavy wear construction, available from Axminster’s virtual stock program and can be customized to client specification, with a minimum order of 60 square yards. “Helping raise the profile of British Wool in the U.S. is what we want to do,” said Bridgette Kelly, press and public relations manager for the British Wool Marketing Board. “We want to get our logo noticed and build its profile so people here are more aware of it. With all the different mills at our booth, it’s a major opportunity for all of them to align themselves with British Wool in a unified approach to the market.” “What is the difference between our wool and others?” she asked. “Well, wool is wool but there are different benefits in each one. Our sheep are hardy. They experience bad weather, high hills, and they have a coat to protect them. And all that resilience goes into the wool.” “We know it is a slow process,” said Tim Booth, product development manager for the British Wool Marketing Board, “a nurturing thing. We don’t expect people to go for British Wool right away. We try to help people to understand and educate them about it. We know it will take time.” Other companies showing their wares in the booth included Joseph Barra-clough Ltd., Carpets of Kid-derminster, Goodacre Carpets, Prestige Fibres, Ro-deo Carpet Mills as well as the International Design Guild, which gave away a luxury car as a prize to one of its members. Solutia had what it coined its “most inviting” booth ever for Surfaces, redesigned specifically to welcome its Master Dealers and treat them to the all new products and tools available to them through its Wear Dated brand. By showcasing a wide array of new broadloom patterns and colors, as well as display racks, literature, point of purchase materials and incentive and co-op advertising programs, the exhibit represents a focused commitment to strengthen retailer partnerships, noted Marianne Miller Cone, mill merchandising manager. Solutia introduced new Wear Dated products from seven East and West coast mills, with several color lines for each. “We’ve opened up our exhibit space this year so that we can show off full size samples and retail displays of these introductions, including new Kara-stan patterns, Royalty loop/cut loop products, and Gulistan friezes,” she said. A new Tuftex 72-oz. textured cut pile was underfoot. “Our goal is to show dealers how to successfully create a Wear Dated space in their store and provide them with incentives to make that happen.” In addition to the new product introductions, Solutia created a number of new P-O-P materials for retailers. “We have also completely revised our retail salesperson training program and have developed sell sheets and customized presentations on topics which dealers can use to tout the differentiated features of carpet made with Wear Dated fiber,” said Jody Williams, director of consumer marketing. While carpet and fiber companies were touting their newest patterns and colors, when it came to the wood category, it was all about being old and worn out; dark and elegant, or exotic in nature “The rustic, distressed look is not only still in,” said John Woolsey, vice president of marketing for Anderson Hardwood Floors, “it is here to stay. It’s not a fad, but a full-fledged segment within the category.” And, even though the mill had no shortage of handscraped, rustic-looking products to entice dealers’ appetites, Anderson was showing attendees “What’s Next” with an assortment of fashion-oriented designs (FCNews, Jan. 24/31). “We are in a fashion business,” he said, “so this year, we took it up a step in terms of style and design and created ways to take high-end looks and bring them to affordable levels so the average consumer can en-joy them as well.” Donald Bouchard, vice president and COO of Per-fection Home Flooring in Pasadena, Calif., called Anderson’s new offerings “awesome. We do high-end custom work such as medallions, and this stuff is right up our alley. It’s not only different, but fits right in with our strategy. There’s no doubt I can sell it.” At the Capella booth, the new owners, Richard Lingle, chairman, and Shannon Ful-ler, president, were “thrilled” with how attendees were treating the mill. “We took full control of the company in July, after having been running it since last January. Our goal is to give distributors and dealers a company they can rely upon when it comes to customer service; better, more timely deliveries; better quality control, and basically anything from the minute to the massive, such as calibrating the equipment regularly and putting Styro-foam in product boxes to prevent scratches to dramatically changing the way claims are handled so that we can be proactive.” Even with the new ownership, product was, of course, the main focus at Capella’s booth, with three types of offerings: a 3/4- and 3/8-in thick Walnut in its Standard Series; Builder-Elite, a new 3-in. wide series in three colors and both 3/4- and 3/8-in thicknesses, and a 3/4- and 3/8-in thick unfinished line in four spe-cies—Red Oak, Pecan, Maple and select Cherry. PanTim, which markets its wood products under a variety of brands, including Green Mountain, NordStar and Timbercreek, was enticing dealers with numerous products. One of its most notable introductions came from its NordStar line which was celebrating the 200th anniversary of the Lewis and Clark expedition. Each product gets its theme from the duo’s famous trek, such as Lewis Plank, Clark Plank, Cook Plank and Laramie Plank. Lewis is a 3/4-in. engine-ered product with a multi-sandable face and planks up to 71-in. long; Clark also has planks measuring 71-in. in length, but it is 3/8-in. thick; Cook is an entry-priced product available in slice-faced northern Red Oak and Brazilian cherry, and Laramie features a dark stain that is sanded off so that each plank features a mixture of dark and light, giving it a unique rustic appearance. Mullican Flooring used Surfaces to kick off its 20th year of producing wood flooring. And, even though it has over 100 types of floors from which to choose, the mill added more to its arsenal with the introduction of its first engineered line. “This will allow us to reach markets that were once not accessible for our solid products,” noted Neil Poland, Mullican’s president. “Areas that feature below grade installations and concrete slabs have traditionally been beyond our reach. This expansion will enable us to reverse that trend and gain a significant share of market penetration in the Southeastern and Southwestern parts of the U.S. where engineered flooring is becoming increasingly prominent.” The new line comes in three thicknesses—9/16-, 1/2- and 5/16-in.—and two widths of 3 and 5 in. It features a wide variety of species, including a number of exotic woods such as Teak. There is also a handsculpted 5-in. wide, 1/2-in. thick product in four varieties—Oak, Hickory, Maple and Walnut. Some of the unique features of the collection include 6-ft. random lengths, colors that match Mullican’s pre-finished sol-id products, and sawn and sliced-cut faces for the look of a real solid floor. Canadian wood manufacturers Lauzon Distinc-tive Hardwood Flooring and Mirage/Boa-Franc each stuck to what they do best, give their customers high-end styles and fashion-oriented products. At Mirage, Luc Robitaille, marketing director, said while the company was offering such items as a re-vised display system capable of holding more samples, and a personal designer assistant on its Web site, it focused its product intros on two areas: dark, rich stains and 5-in. wide designs. Java, Merlot and Sambuca are three “very dark colors that have gotten a great reaction,” he said. “People are saying this is what they have been waiting many years for.” The dark purple Merlot and the black Sambuca are available on Maple, while Java, a rich, dark brown stain can be had on Yellow Birch. In addition, a 5-in. wide engineered plank made its debut in both Oak and Maple in a choice of natural, auburn, Nevada or sierra stains. Robert Coveney, vice president of sales and marketing for Lauzon, said what makes the mill’s three new exotics unique is they come from the company’s own forests. Santos Piedra, Betula Golden Walnut and Betula Walnut each “gives the trend, beauty and direction consumers want,” he explained, without the company having to source the world. These products are being added to Lauzon’s NextStep and Classics collections. In addition, the manufacturer launched Titanium Traffic, featuring a polymerized titanium finish that reduces traffic patterns. “The finish is clear and smooth to let the wood’s natural beauty shine through,” Coveney noted, “yet it provides incredibly tough protection against daily wear and tear.” Laminates ‘Scrape’ By With the rustic look continuing to carve out a permanent place for itself in the wood category, not to mention the increased num-ber of exotic wood species being used to make wood floors, makers of laminate flooring made sure they did not get left behind as manufacturers from Alloc to Wilsonart unveiled their own “handscraped” products and exotic looks. Alloc went both exotic and rustic this year by adding five exotic finishes and one rustic to its Classics collection—Carbonized Bamboo, Santos Mahohany, Rustic Pear, Walnut Allure and Country Maple—and Tavern Oak, a product that is both “rich in color and texture with a deep wood tone and a heavy grain,” said Meghan Patterson, mar-keting manager. In addition, the company launched WoodStrip to give dealers another realistic wood look, she noted. at 3-1/4-in. wide and plank lengths exceeding 50-in., WoodStrip reflects one of the more popular wood styles—long and narrow planks. At BHK of America, the company kept to its philosophy of keeping products in the mid to high price points to give distributors and dealers more of an opportunity to earn a profit. Its newest offerings in laminate and wood (including cork) not only reflect that but, as Bill Byrne, vice president of sales and marketing, noted, they help the company offer a more complete palette. In laminate, BHK’s rustic look can be found in the new Moderna Vision Handscrap-ed with four-sided micro-bevel technology. Available in four types, including exotics such as Jatoba and Pecan, the line is created from company owned plates that have been scraped to give each plank an authentic rustic appearance. Taking the look of wood floors to another level was Kronotex, which introduced the Engineered Flooring collection. While the line has a number of common styling techniques found in today’s laminate floors, such as registered embossed surfaces with four-sided microbevel edging, it also has a unique twist to its construction: a backside featuring a woodgrain in an unstained decor. “With our Engineered line,” said Sam Green, Kronotex’ director of U.S. sales, “we are able to offer our customers hardwood floor quality and appearance but at a significant savings.” Though less expensive than real wood, the line is an upper-end laminate with a price tag of $3.99 per square foot. Kronotex also went the exotic route with 11 new hybrid decors to its Dynam-ic collection, including Canary Wood, Heritage Pecan, Rain Forest Mahogany, Rus-tic Maple, Colonial Maple Brazilian Cherry, Charleston Pine, Appalachian Oak, Cumberland Oak, Bamburg Pine and Avondale Pine. Finally, the company ad-ded four oak designs to Robusto, Kronotex’ 12mm thick product featuring its Clic2Clic locking system and either a Pelzer sound saving pad—the same kind used in Mercedes automobiles—or with a plain back. After purchasing Classen USA’s assets last April, Ro-bina was making its Sur-faces debut with a host of new products and collections. Products were broken into six initial collections—Exotics, Visions, Tra-ditions, Traditions Plus, In-terlock and Interlock Plus. Matt Burger, director of marketing, said “These are the first products to come out under the Robina name and, happily, we have not only been very busy, but the products are creating a lot of buzz and excitement.” What attendees found most attractive about the products he said were two exclusive features to Robina: a mechanical locking system under license from Pergo and the addition of Microban antimicrobial pro-tection. “They really see the benefits and advantages to each of these items,” Burger said. Tim Tipton, director of marketing for Quick-Step, said the laminate company’s newest offerings continue to demonstrate why “we are the innovators in the field.” Using a proprietary surface structure, Country Surface, the mill launched Eligna Country, which has a handscraped texture. Another unique item in the Quick-Step line is the latest technology used in its Perspective collection. “We are now printing on orange paper,” Tipton said, “which allows for greater depth and realism,” And, while wood looks in laminate are the hot item, ceramic and stone looks continue to gain marketshare. With that, Quick-Step introduced Quadra Slate, featuring a new Natural Authentic finish. The new finish emphasizes both the design and composition of real tile including seven different surface heights for a realistic texture. Finally, there was Wilsonart, which took its high-end Red Label series to another level with the Red Label Hand Scraped collection. Retailing at an average of 20% higher than the original Red Label products, Rob Tarver, national marketing manager, said, “We have taken the look of a true handscraped wood and are offering it in a durable, easy-to-maintain product at one-third the cost.” Along with the rustic look, Wilsonart, as it has been doing for a number of years, was showing why laminate makes for such a great floor in commercial settings. “It’s a growing area,” he said. “We’re getting jobs coming in everyday, and with big companies such as Motel 6, Hilton, Blockbuster, hospitals, etc. We’re building a great portfolio of successes, and feel this is an area where retailers can really add to their bottom line, especially when it comes to Main Street jobs, which is an area just about everyone is doing something in.” (Editor’s note: In the next issue, we will continue our recap of Surfaces by looking at some of the trends and products seen in the re-silient and ceramic categories. Future issues will spotlight individual companies and their introductions as well as other unique things whch took place during the market.) Realistic Resilient Manufacturers of resilient flooring continue to use the latest in technology to make vinyl look real, whether it mimics stone, wood or ceramic tile. Mannington Mill had no shortage of innovative products. Adura Luxury Plank is the company’s newest entry. “It’s the only product of its kind in the market,” said David Sheehan, director of marketing, resilient products. This new wood-look vinyl product is compatible with Mannington’s Adura Luxury vinyl tile introduced last year. It has six patterns, 12 SKUs (five of which are registered embossed), and employs NatureForm on select patterns. Realistique is a resilient product featuring NatureForm Optix technology. “Realistique combines stunning beauty and realism with superior performance,” said Sheehan. It features Teflon, a new Satin urethane finish for extremely low gloss, and has a 75mil overall thickness/15mil wearlayer. Its nine patterns and 38 SKUs feature slate looks like Memphis Stone, a 3-in. mosaic, Highland Slate, a 6-in. Multicolor, and Ardesia, a 12-in. tile with natural color and detail. It also includes modular and marble looks. Johnsonsite introduced five fashion-forward textures to its rubber flooring line. The new textures will be added to the company’s current six textures and standard 60-color line, and include: Bamboo, Chopped Bamboo, Pebbles, Artistic Square and Cubis. All textures are available in solid colors or in a variety of Speckled, Marbleized and Olio patterns. The company has also added six colorways to its Triumph multi-functional and sports flooring line, and has launched Restart, a materials reclamation program. “Johnsonsite continues its forward-thinking approach to design and often looks to the outdoors as inspiration for its new textures,” said Sharon Folliard, the company’s vice president of design and development. “Traditionally, when a specifier or designer starts to create a commercial space, they think of space planning furniture and lighting,” said Majorie Bosley, solution design consultant for Johnsonite. “Many times, flooring is an afterthought. It’s not thought of as creating performance productivity. Well, creating high performance environments is really a strategic asset. We believe flooring should be part of that strategic planning.” Tarkett debuted several products as well as new merchandising programs that seem to be getting some real good attention from the retailers, noted Vince Wilkins, director of marketing services, residential division. “We are previewing Fresh Start Textures and Easy Living Textures, at two different price points, which are an addition to our FiberFloor line,” he said. “We’ve taken our TruTex technology in sheet vinyl, and put it into FiberFloor. It gives the finished product more depth, dimension and realistic texture. “We’ve created a good, better, best trade up story in FiberFloor, with 40 colors in Personal Expressions, and 32 colors in Fresh Start and Easy Living Textures. So we now offer 72 colors in FiberFloor. “Another thing we have developed in resilient is,” he added, “a system that more closely matches the consumer in how she wants to buy resilient flooring. We are calling it the I.grat Resilient Selling System. I.grat stands for instant gratification. Instead of grouping our products, as all manufacturers do, in good, better, best, sell by price point, sell by construction, we are grouping our products into one of five decorating trends.” The trends are Country Coastal, Spa, Country Rustic, Modern Bungalow and Timeless Classics. Within each collection, good living to best living is listed. Tarkett is not getting away from good, better, best, Wilkins noted, as the consumer still wants to know price, but the emphasis is on design first. EarthWerks/Swiff-Train’s Wood Classic Collection was a show highlight for the company. The luxury vinyl tile offering features a natural to the touch, rough-sawn look. The plank also has a superior registered embossed finish which mimics the natural wood look of a barn. Designed for both commercial or residential applications, the line has a 20-year residential and 10-year commercial warranty. Other debuts for EarthWerks were Montana Plank and Madrid Stone, new additions the luxury vinyl tile and plank offerings. Montana Plank features a ribbed-embossed production process that catches the feel of natural hardwood. Madrid Stone is an 18-in. designer tile collection which features grout lines built into all four sides for a superior ceramic look. The 6-in. Warwick Plank has a ribbed embossed finish and graining. Ceramic Crosses Over Having taken advantage of the consumer’s desire for using both ceramic tile and carpeting in her home, Crossville announced it has joined into a co-marketing alliance with Bentley Prince Street. Targeted at designers, architects and homeowners, and using color as an inspiration, Crossville has designed its new Color Blox porcelain stone tile to coordinate with Prince Street’s broadloom and carpet tile products.