By Sarah Zimmerman
The exotic appeal continues to grow among consumers today, but often times the price tag associated with these foreign fashions prohibits customers from purchasing them. Not anymore.

Leading laminate mills are capturing the essence of the exotic hardwoods in their fashion-forward “faux” floors at a fraction of the cost. And, according to mill executives, it’s just in time, filling an increasingly popular niche at the appropriate price point—and offering environmental extras.

Exotic excitement

Exotic décors have been a growing laminate segment for the past few years and continue to maintain their popularity, noted David Small, vice president of marketing for Pergo. “Exotics help create a unique mix of adventure and sophistication in the home, and their design possibilities for consumers are endless.” He noted some styles that have been most popular are: light looks like bamboo, koa and Mediterranean Olive, and dark, rich looks like teak, jatoba and palissander.

He said though new fashion trends typically start in the hardwood market and then quickly migrate into laminate flooring. “The ability to combine these exciting new looks with superior durability, ease of care and fast installation at a premium price continue to fuel the strong performance of the laminate category.”

Milton Goodwin, vice president of laminate and ceramic products for Armstrong, agreed, noting the demand for different species and unique looks are growing dramatically. “We’ve seen more and more consumers stepping out from the traditional hardwood visuals and asking for a broader selection of choices— more exotic species and ‘specialty visuals.’”

He noted, people continue to ‘globe trot’ and many different stores further expose consumers to exotic looks and items from far off places. “Beautiful exotic woods, such as those assembled for our premium laminate lines, bring these global species into the home.”

Mannington’s Al Boulogne, manager of laminate business, also said laminate products are what allow consumers to get these exotic looks in their homes. He said for example, fruitwoods are used in many of today’s popular furniture designs, but some fruitwoods are too soft for flooring. “Laminate is the perfect medium to carry out the fruitwood trend, both from a substrate and cost standpoint. The technology used to make laminate floors allows us to provide these looks—looks that are either impractical, or for many consumers, cost-prohibitive— in real hardwood.”

Looking again to hardwood fashions coming to fruition through laminate, Steve Ehrlich, director of marketing for Faus, said, “We can capture all the beauty people want in several exotic species/styles—for example, Pear tree and Olive tree, which are not available in mass hardwood—and all of these styles are still extremely affordable.”

Along the same line, Roger Farabee, vice president of Quick•Step, said, “A ‘nice’ room can truly become a ‘spectacular’ room with the addition of the rich design sense of an exotic floor.” He explained that today’s technology ensures that exotic laminates are very realistic and something consumers would be proud to feature in their homes. “We go to great lengths to attend to every detail from exact color and woodgrain pattern matching, to species specific surface texturing, to replication of a realistic hardwood sound. Our laminates, thus, allow consumers to have a very upscale, realistic, beautiful visual at a fraction of the price of wood.”

Eric Erickson, Shaw’s laminate category manager, reiterated, “With the innovations in the laminate process, we have the ability to duplicate almost any high-end wood visual with much more price stabilization.”

Added benefits

Aside from the affordability and authentic visuals and textures, laminate exotics sport several enticing attributes: environmentally friendly, easy installation and maintenance and durability.

Cindy Thornton, marketing manager for Alloc and Berry Floors, said there is no compromise in look or style, yet laminate products are much more affordable, less costly to install and certainly easier and less expensive to maintain.

Shaw’s Erickson agreed, but also pointed to a different and recent attribute: “With all the legal actions around the importing of exotic hardwoods, it has definitely affected the amount and cost of these products. Laminate, however, is not affected by those factors.” He added that laminate is a great product for adjusting fast-moving trends. “There are certainly trends from around the world that come into the U.S. market but sometimes the color pallet, surface finish or width of the product may need to be altered to really fit the U.S. niche. With the laminate category, we’re able to quickly react to this and tailor the product to fit into and lead the U.S. trends at a value price.”

Faus’ Ehrlick agreed, saying laminate mills are targeting illegal or hard-to-find hardwood species since they are easier to make and don’t affect the environment.

An additional benefit, Farabee noted, is the ability to offer stunning exotic looks without harvesting one endangered tree. “We are able to create the rainforest or tropical wood looks, using only domestic, managed- orest woods that are plentiful—Quick•Step uses 70% post-industrial waste in its U.S. laminates. He also noted easier installation—with locking and click systems homeowners can decide to change a floor on their own and easily use it again in another room.

Mannington’s Boulogne agreed, stating many of the benefits to using laminate looks rather than real hardwoods have to do with the environment. “We’re able to translate species to laminate without destroying the natural resource.”

Taking it a step further, Armstong’s Goodwin said laminate is certainly an environmental option, but the segment needs to tell that story. “Made from wood fibers and wood chips—using everything except the bark—laminate offers greater utilization of the tree than other wood products, and you do not need to use trees that are hard to replenish.” Another environmental aspect he pointed to was that typically, factories are located where the trees are— most laminate plants are within 300 miles of the trees used—so shipping is less costly and more eco-friendly.