Dennis Mohn, Alloc VP Sales & Marketing

Reno, Nev.—The Floors to Go of today bears little resemblance to the Floors to Go purchased by Abbey Carpet three-plus years ago. Not only has the group more than doubled in size, but management has instituted an array of programs and promotions that has lifted it to new professional heights.

The typical Floors to Go member is a one-store operation doing between $2 million and $2.5 million at retail out of a 5,000-sq.-ft. showroom. That volume has increased since the Abbey purchase. The group has also evolved geographically: Membership was formerly concentrated west of the Rockies but has since better penetrated the Mid-west and East.

At its recent annual convention here, Steve Silverman, president, was reflecting on Floors to Go’s progress over the last three years. “When the group was purchased it had a name but no privately branded display system, it didn’t have a great deal of marketing and advertising help for members, no B2B programs to any degree and no consumer Web site. It didn’t have a lot of things it has today.”

Heading into its fourth full year since the purchase, Floors to Go members now have proprietary brands and merchandising—like Creative Elegance and Designers Choice—which create a cohesive, professional appearance. “The focus is to keep a consistent look in the showroom, which is why we introduced the hard rock maple fixtures,” said Lisa Henson, vice president of merchandising. “We are looking for consistency not only across all hard and soft surface merchandisers, but in height as well.”

Also available to members is complete P-O-P signage and a library of 30-second radio scripts, not to mention what Silverman believes to be the best consumer finance program in the industry with the most competitive rates. In addition, Floors to Go in the fall will enhance its consumer Web site with an interactive feature which offers end users the potential to build virtual rooms with Floors to Go products. She will have the ability to change the color of wall paint, choose from a selection of furniture that is most indicative of her own home and allows her to envision how her potential flooring choices will look in her home.

But the biggest change is, Silverman said, existing members now know and trust management. “Their profits and margins have improved as our private brands protect them from Internet sellers and other retail competition because these products can’t be shopped. Mill programs are designed to sell to the masses. They are also designed to tie up dealers’ credit lines. [Conversely], our programs are designed to make sure our members get the sale. We don’t care whose product they sell.”

The growth of Floors to Go as a group has not been lost on the suppliers. Glenn Strohl, director of national accounts for Anderson Hardwood Floors, was seeing retailers who have not been in the wood business interested in getting into higher-end, higher-design products. “It’s been a positive experience in the three years we’ve been supplying the group. These people are looking to sell innovative products.”

Bill Smith, president of Bali Flooring, agreed, noting that membership is more than willing to embrace niche products like cork and bamboo. “In one year we are doing business with 20% of the members. We expect business to increase even more this year as we come up with more new products and promotions.”

Charting A Profitable Course

Dennis Mohn, vice president of sales and marketing for Alloc, credits Floors to Go management for charting a profitable course. “Management is in line with their members’ needs and are doing a good job helping them succeed. They are solid, grounded retailers, well educated in all products.”

Mohn added that Alloc has been doing well with Floors to Go, particularly the original high-pressure product with the aluminum locking system and attached cushion.

Over the short term, Silverman cited three goals for the group: add more quality members, ensure the mills ship samples in a reasonable amount of time, and continue private labeling in hard surface. “Carpet was easy; now we have all hard surface labeled. But we need to extend those categories with more products that are privately labeled.”

When asked about challenges, Silverman came up with one for which he has no solution. In fact, it’s an industry-wide problem. He noted that 20 years ago the replacement cycle for carpet was 11 years. Now it’s dropped to between four and six years—“which is good. But what’s the replacement cycle for wood, tile and laminate? If those surfaces are taking market share from carpet, it may be great for the rug business, but what about wood? If it’s 20 years, what’s going to happen in 10 or 15 years to the manufacturer and retailer? We don’t talk about it because no one has a solution.”

Convention Specifics

During general session members were advised to put a premium on consumer satisfaction, particularly because the majority of flooring consumers today shop at only one location before making their purchase. “You have to make sure when the customer walks into that store you have the information she desires and make her feel at home,” Henson said, asking members to consider how they would want to be treated themselves if they were purchasing a high-ticket item. “Many retailers operate under the ‘let’s get it installed and hope the phone doesn’t ring’ philosophy. That’s not right; there must be follow-up. Make sure she is satisfied after the installation. Remember that studies show every dissatisfied customer will tell 10 people.”

In terms of product, she noted people are spending more money for soft surface because of the popularity of hard surface. The idea is, if the consumer is buying a hardwood or porcelain floor, for example, she also wants better soft goods. “They may be buying less volume, but they are buying better-end goods.” To that end, Floors to Go focused on more style and design—level cut loops, cables, shags—with its introductions.

The soft surface specifics:

• Creative Elegance is middle to upper-end products from Shaw and Tuftex. Everything merchandised under this proprietary brand comes with a 15-year wear, stain and texture-retention warranty;
• Creative Elegance Royal Stainmaster Collection features the 18 new Stainmaster products Shaw has introduced in 2006;
• Creative Elegance Anso Caress Prestige features the new Anso products Shaw has introduced for 2006;
• Designers Choice Royal features 22 Mohawk Stainmaster intros;
• Designers Choice Prestige features all of Mohawk’s 2006 Wear-Dated intros;
• New Stainmaster products from Royalty and Camelot;
• Decorative Floors offers new patterns from Nourison. The display houses three collections of polypropylene, polypropylene/wool blend and 12 privatelabel, Wilton-woven patterns with coordinating runners;
• Floor Expressions is a collection of 37 patterns from Couristan of wool/polypropylene blends, face-to-face Wiltons and nylon prints, and
• New rug suppliers are Dalyn, Mohawk Select, The Rug Market and Safavieh, which offer programmed large sizes up to 12X18-ft.

The hardwood side:

• Floors to Go rolled out two wood programs: Traditions and Classic Choice. Traditions is an engineered line comprised of 40 Mannington SKUs in a variety of colors, species and price points which represent 70% of the hardwood business being done today. Displays ship the first week in April.

Classic Choice Hardwood is the result of a partnership between Mohawk and 3M. The Scotchgard Protector advanced technology repels stains, wear marks and even glue from installation. The offering is considered mainstream oaks, maples, cherrys and hickorys. The line offers a blend of 12, 3/4-in. solids in 3-1/4- and 4-in. widths, and 15, 1-1/6-in. engineered in mostly 3-in.-wide formats.
—Steven Feldman