Salem, N.J.—In today’s ever-changing, ultra-competitive marketplace, it’s more important than ever for manufacturers to be in tune with the needs of their customers. Specialty flooring retailers are becoming more involved in providing a full range of hard surface flooring products, and research shows promising growth in the ceramic tile arena. With the introduction of ceramic tile into its hard surface flooring line—a full launch is scheduled for next January at Surfaces 2003— Mannington Mills is responding to the need of the retailer and the desire of the consumer, noted Kim Holm, president of residential business.

“The time is right to expand our hard surface flooring options,” he explained. “Demographics point toward a surge in the demand for hard surface flooring, and Mannington is poised to take advantage of that.” “We believe that the introduction of ceramic tile rounds out our offering of hard surface flooring. And given our dedication to the specialty floor covering retailer, we felt it was important to offer them a comprehensive ceramic tile program,” said Ed Duncan, the company’s senior vice president of residential marketing. As with other Mannington products, styling leadership and attention to detail are paramount, noted Joe Amato, the manufacturer’s director of styling. “The products will resemble some of nature’s most exquisite stones—travertine, slate, lime-stone—and will include not only various sizes of tiles, but listellos and accent pieces as well.”

Holm noted, a director of marketing for Mannington’s ceramic business has been hired and will be officially announced shortly. He will report directly to Duncan. The personnel throughout Mannington’s distribution network are on board and looking forward to the opportunities ceramic tile will bring, he said. The mill is also planning to construct a new warehouse facility to store the merchandise. “We have discussed the addition of ceramic tile to our product mix with our distributors and all of them are willing to support the extension of the Mannington hard surface family of products and they will all be carrying this new ceramic program,” said Holm. “And we will be carrying inventory at an expanded warehouse we have in construction in High Point, N.C. “We haven’t finalized the entire program at this point in time,” Holm added, “but it will all be imported, primarily from Italy.” “I think the move into ceramic tile is the next logical progression in our expansion to cover all the hard surface categories,” said Duncan.

“Strategically, it more than makes a tremendous amount of sense for us given who our customer base is and what their interests are.” Dealer Support “We think the new horizon is really with the specialty flooring retailers in this category,” said Holm. “A big part of our decision to get into the category was to support them. The projections for the category range from 5% to 10% growth over the next year or two and we are certainly in line with that. “One of the drivers of that growth is going to be that the consumers are going to be exposed to the product like never before,” he concluded. “Where, historically, she has had to go to the more tradition al ceramic tile retailer or wholesaler to find ceramic, she is now going to be exposed to it in a high percentage in the specialty retailer environment. So, we think the growth rate, albeit it 5% to 10%, will be faster with the specialty flooring retailers than the other marketing channels.” —Louis Iannaco