Laminate Moldings recognizes the profitability trim affords retailers.

By Sarah Zimmerman
Moldings have been used as a finisher of flooring projects for years. However, according to manufacturers, they previously remained secondary in the minds of customers, retailers and installers. Today, moldings are stepping into the foreground of residential and commercial flooring, giving customers a variety of products focused on style and function, and providing retailers added profit.

“Moldings are a necessity for any room,” said Thilo Hessler, president of Laminate Moldings. “They finish off flooring edges, which is not only needed for floor expansion purposes, but also to beautify the space.” He added that retailers today recognize profits molding adds to a job, noting there has been a shift to now include trim in the sales pitch.

Paul Puskar, national sales manager for Nova Distinctive Floors, agreed stating, up until now, moldings have been mostly an afterthought of the flooring sale. “Recently, many dealers have discovered the natural additional profit center and room enhancement advantages of including moldings and trims during the sales process.” He thinks this trend is likely to continue gaining momentum in the future, as dealers focus on maximizing their sales.

“Every flooring job has to include molding sales,” said Amanda Kennedy, sales coordinator for Zamma Corp. “But, in order to up-sell a customer using trim, manufacturers need to supply dealers and buyers with well coordinated, top-of-the-line products.”

David Small, marketing director for Pergo, shared three key criteria molding must meet. “It must enhance the look of the floor, provide outstanding performance and be easy to install.” His thoughts are molding is ideally a part of a complete flooring system, and therefore should be included in the initial selling and buying of floors, as it affects the end-result of the room. “A high-quality molding will create a coherent look in a room—serving as a finishing touch to the consumer’s floor of choice.”

Faus’ Kyle Evans, business manager of FauSolutions, added, “Molding gives the room an essence of completion.” He noted, moldings are used to give the customer a satisfactory “fit and finish,” allowing them to walk away feeling like they made a good decision. But, he had a slightly varied stance pertaining to molding and sales, however, saying, it’s a standard for moldings to come second to flooring. “Unfortunately, the pure essence and purpose of flooring molding is a secondary sale.” He added selection, presentation and installation of moldings are as important as the primary flooring sale.

Speaking on the profitability of moldings, Evans said, “The enhancement and up-sell of the molding comes with factory controlled color match, precise milling, species match and a smooth feel and look to an enhanced wear resistant finish.” While the appearance and match of the flooring is “paramount,” he added, the features that reduce the total cost of doing business are always a welcome advancement in the industry.

Retailers share in manufacturer’s forward thoughts, placing molding and trim in the midst of, if not the beginning of flooring sales. David Snedeker, senior flooring buyer for Nebraska Furniture Mart (NFM), said moldings are sold not as an add-on or afterthought but as a basic staple item needed to complete the transaction of putting in flooring. “Our sales staff is required to talk about the transitions needed for the install and offer information to help consumers make informed decisions about their total purchase.” He added that being able to give customers options in coordinating trim and at reduced prices has made NFM’s relationship with manufacturer Zamma Corp. extremely successful.

Steven Pulsipher, vice president of flooring for R.C. Willey, noted it’s necessary to include molding options into the sales pitch with laminate flooring. “I deal mostly with stock laminate, so being able to show customers matching trim colors is a plus.” He added, special order moldings seem to be dropping, as customers are satisfied with the price, availability and amount of installation visits offered by stock purchases.

So, what are manufacturers doing with products to boost molding offerings to buyers and dealers?

Laminate Moldings offers the first point of purchase display in the industry, according to the company. The Versatrim display features molding designs and colors to match retailer’s most popular selling brands of laminate flooring. Hessler noted, the display’s convenient layout of actual molding pieces make it easy to match up most popular laminate floor brands today. The company provides dealers and customers with 21 colors to choose from.

Zamma gives retailers and shoppers 500 color selections in its moldings. Kennedy said specific retailers are able to cut deals giving away quarter rounds with large flooring purchases, again upselling customers. The company also makes a multi-purpose reducer (MPR), which can be used with all types of flooring jobs.

Nova provides dealers and buyers with Clipstar wall base— small hidden clips for simple installation with no nails or holes. It also offers Combistar 2-in-1 “t-molding reducer,” which makes transitioning between flooring easy with heights up to one inch. For 2007, Nova has introduced the Stepstar height adjustable flush (not overlap) stair nose profile for floors between 1/4- and 9/16-inches. Stepstar will reduce installation time, reduce the number of SKUs, be available in wood veneered and laminate, and remain eco-friendly.

Simple Solutions Four-in-One Molding, made by Pergo, packages four laminate molding transitions together. One package holds mechanisms to assemble moldings for four uses—T-molding, carpet transition, end molding and hard surface reducer— and retails for about $35. Pergo designers predicted three trends within the laminate division for 2007: classic, rustic and exotic. Like the flooring, matching moldings will sell this year.

Faus’ Evans said aside from molding trends following flooring in 2007, focus will remain on the reduction of inventories and back office activities. Like Pergo, Faus’ resolution to the issue—FasTrim—is one kit containing four different types of molding.