Most flooring distributors carry a litany of manufacturer brands, but over the past 15 years more and more are distributing their own private-label collections to offer some differentiation to their customers. Some of the larger wholesalers import on their own; others simply rely on their current suppliers to support their own brands.
Allstate Flooring Distributors, which services New York, New Jersey, upper Connecticut and northeastern Pennsylvania, has excelled at private labeling. While it relies on familiar manufacturer brands for installation supplies and accessories, most of the flooring it offers is private label. As an example, the Legacy Flooring Collection was started in March 2019 and has grown significantly over the past several years. The idea behind this launch was to offer products and services that could be differentiated in this very competitive marketplace.
To that point, its flagship products from the Avaron and Brentwood Hills lines are unique in several ways. The most significant is the white oak engineered wood is not stained. Rather, the planks are thermal treated. So essentially the floors are placed in an oven at a particular heat for a designated period of time until they achieve a unique color profile. That is very difficult to reproduce by staining, resulting in a one-of-a-kind floor. These floors come in a variety of colors and offer the most currently desired specifications.
“Allstate Flooring is one of our go-to distributors for hardwood flooring,” said Michael Mercurio, sales manager, We’ll Floor “U,” based in Hampton Bays, N.Y. “The Brentwood Hills collection in particular is a hot seller for us. All the colors are on trend with a price point that is hard to beat. Our customers have been very pleased with the quality and value this collection provides.”
The private-label strategy extends to LVP. JetCore is not your typical LVP. Available in eight colors, JetCore has been designed for the most active family lifestyles. Like most LVPs, JetCore is 100% waterproof, but it offers extra wear protection due to their proprietary process of adding an extremely scratch- and scuff-resistant top layer, which provides an AC4 rating.
But according to Tim Yarbrough, vice president of operations, the biggest differentiation for Allstate is in its marketing program. “The Legacy Flooring Collection does a great deal of direct-to-consumer marketing through social media and other digital marketing,” he explained. “The purpose of marketing this way is to build brand knowledge with the consumer and then send the generated leads to one of our 250 authorized dealers. It has been said that our line has quickly become go-to products with many of our retailers because of this program and the unique properties of our products.”
Other dealers attest to the strategy. “The Legacy Flooring Collection has given our store the tools and quality products to provide our customers with the great floors they are looking to purchase,” said Robert Pechinski, general manager, Fox Floors, Ocean, N.J. “The website has all the information needed. Deliveries are prompt and accurate.”
Other private-label lines from Allstate include:
- Coastal and Riviera WPC and Hampton SPC, which are among the highest quality products on the market, according to Yarbrough. “With 24 colors and styles to choose from, there is something for everyone.”
- The Milford collection offers five stained colors of white oak engineered flooring for the customer who wants a more consistent appearance with less variation and fewer natural wood characteristics such as knots, streaks, etc.
- Superior solid hardwood is made in Canada with the highest specification in the market, Yarbrough stated. Six colors of oak and four colors of ash in 3 ¼- and 4 ¾-inch widths are available. “We are one of the few lines offering a prefinished ash, which provides a beautiful, durable hardwood floor.
- Then there’s Ron Playa, Isla Flooring, Lodi, N.J. He has been buying from Allstate Flooring for past 15 years. “They have superior solid wood flooring that is Canadian milled. And its LVP collections are all great looking floors that are easy to install with zero claims with a commercial warranty.”
