By Steven Feldman
EDISON, N.J.—One year after FloorFolio took the wraps off Responsive Flooring as its exclusive distributor for North America,
Michael Freedman, president and CEO, and partner Dale Tucker, vice president, are hoping to parlay the commercial flooring line’s diversity, uniqueness and flexibility into paydirt.
The depth and breadth of the product assortment is rivaled only by large companies such as Armstrong, Mannington and
Tarkett. “What’s interesting is we offer the same categories as all the major players, but we’re not going out with the big manufacturer mentality. There are no layers of management. You’re always talking to the owners of the company. We have the ability to make a decision, react to the decision and implement it. This time frame is extremely short compared to others.”
But Responsive Flooring is about much more than product diversity. “No one can touch us on flexibility and the ability to service the market,” Freedman said. “And we are competitively priced.” Service is a direct result of FloorFolio’s inventory investment, well into the millions of dollars. It inventories every product it samples in an 86,000- square-foot warehouse here. Flexibility is illustrated in Responsive’s ability to custom make any color in any pattern in its line. Take the genesis of Wood Essence, for example.
“They made a 3-ply, we needed a 4-ply,” Freedman said. “I flew to their plant in India, they gave me their two plant managers for two days, shut down their complete production line and within two days Wood Essence was created in 15 SKUs. Name one other manufacturer that can do that in two days.”
In fact, Freedman said Responsive is very aggressive in finding ways to meet any market criteria. “Take homogeneous, for example. The company can make it 3mm thick, the standard 2mm thick, or we can dial it down to 1mm thick if someone is on a low budget—and we have the ability to custom color for under 1,000 yards, all within 48 hours if urgent.”
Flexibility is also evident in the way FloorFolio takes Responsive Flooring to market. “We don’t have to follow the model of one size fits all for the North American market, but instead can find the best fit for each territory, whether that be distribution, agents or our own salespeople.” To that end, there are eight people across the country directly representing the line along with six distributors, including Wheeler in Florida and DesignTech in Texas. The company goes direct to contractors in the New York Metropolitan area.
Recognizing all of the above, Responsive almost instantly became a preferred vendor of
StarNet, bringing instant credibility to the product line. “It validates that this company is for real,” Freedman said. “StarNet would not have signed us on if they didn’t believe the management team and products could support their members.”
When Freedman talks about Responsive’s diverse portfolio, he is quick to note how each product is unique in the marketplace.
1. Homogeneous: Every product in the Responsive portfolio is polyurethane reinforced (PUR). Urethane is poured in during the raw materials stage, and then when the material is finished, the urethane is embedded throughout the product. “This process results in much better performance and meets the requirements of what I would deem a no-wax, no-buff floor,” he said. “What’s more, we offer PUR in all versions of homogeneous—from premium to budget. And we offer that to contractors for $1 a square foot. So you can be into a homogeneous for virtually the same price as a premium VCT, and that is unheard of in our industry.”
2. Heterogeneous: Freedman said the Responsive line is designed with a diverse color line and the same PUR story as homogeneous. “The only way to differentiate heterogeneous is by the visuals and maintenance, and we address the latter through the PUR. Also, it is aggressively priced, about 10% to 15% below market.”
3. Safety flooring: Freedman admits FloorFolio does not offer the depth of other suppliers, “but we offer what the industry needs—basic styling and patterns— with PUR embedded throughout at an aggressive price point.”
4. Sports flooring: Product is offered in a wider width (2 meters) than competitors’ (1.5 meters) product, resulting in fewer seams. PUR is offered here as well.
5. Conductive and dissipative sheet—Electra and Electra Plus: The unique story here is these products are self contained. “Whereas with everyone else’s product you need a system —material, adhesive and copper strip for grounding—with our product the conductivity is built into the product. Competitors’ products require a carbon- based, black adhesive, which is messy and costly, whereas you can use a regular full-spread adhesive for our product. I believe we are the only manufacturer that stocks this product in the U.S.”
6. Luxury vinyl tile (LVT): FloorFolio offers commercial (3mm thick, 22 mil wearlayer) and light commercial/residential (2mm thick, 8 mil and 12 mil wearlayer) versions, and all 70 visuals are available in each grade. “We are the only ones in the industry that do that.”
Background
Based in Mumbai, Responsive is a $150 million company that has been around for 50 years. It started as a raw materials manufacturer, then got into ropes and mooring lines for the shipping industry. Flooring is now its largest business.
Responsive had been targeting the North American market when FloorFolio came calling a little more than a year ago. Freedman and Tucker were responsible for the successful launch of LG Flooring in North America a few years ago, on which Responsive had been keeping tabs. So when LG last year opted to take its North American business in house, that opened the door for FloorFolio to begin its relationship with Responsive. “Because the LG launch was so seamless, they always thought it was LG itself and not another company doing all the marketing and warehousing,” Freedman said. “When we told Responsive it was us, within 24 hours they voted to give us the line exclusively. They told us it was a no-brainer.”
