Las Vegas—While it has its challenges—low-end products creeping into retailer showrooms and U.S. Customs detentions significantly impacting supply chains, to name a few—the resilient flooring category continues to offer consumers the styles and durability they need, causing demand to continue to exceed expectations. To capture that ongoing potential in 2024 and beyond, the industry’s top suppliers are offering up the latest in style and innovation. That was evident at this year’s International Surface Event, held here, last month.
From eco-friendly product lines touting the creation of a new category of resilient flooring to elevated SPC/WPC and even new looks in sheet vinyl, suppliers pulled out all the stops to bring retailers the products they need to make the coming year a success.
The show itself also flaunted that fact, with many suppliers touting the robust turnout and buying mood of all those in attendance. “It’s way busier than last year,” said Jesse Woodrow, chief operating officer, Lux Flooring. “More people are here. The show this year is great. People are excited. People are in a buying mood. I feel like people are already asking, already thinking, already looking—already buying.”
Eco-friendly options
The creation of what many suppliers called “a new category of flooring” was evident at TISE 2024. Suppliers across the show floor showed off their version of PVC-free, recyclable or eco-friendly rigid core options designed to intrigue today’s “Earth-conscious” consumers.
Take Raskin Industries for example. The company made its foray into the eco-friendly field with its Stone + Wood line, a PVC-free hybrid touting waterproof capabilities and enhances scratch resistance. “Having that PVC-free element really supports this greater conversation of sustainability and what is a healthy environment,” said Gabrielle Raskin, director of business development. “Something we keep driving home is ‘It’s all in the details.’ The Stone + Wood collection—my dad, [Michael Raskin, CEO], has been working on for two years, picking out the right colors and really fine-tuning it. So, there’s a lot of pride behind the new products we’re putting out.”
Eva-Last, which previously specialized in outdoor decking materials, made its foray into the indoor flooring market—and eco-friendly category—with its “Tier” brand of luxury rigid core flooring. Featuring a PVC-free, recycled (and “recyclable”) bamboo polymer composite core (RBPC), the new resilient line features high-resolution 3D digital printing that renders a natural, wood-look visual. Panels come in a 9-inch-wide x 75-inch-long format. (See spotlight on page 18 of this issue.)
SPC still reigns
While SPC may have taken some heavy hits in 2023, it’s still the rigid core construction to beat. As such, many resilient suppliers at this year’s show highlighted their best in SPC while launching new iterations with better quality and high style.
Pelican Creations Home, for example, has always been focused on better quality products. “Everyone has learned that thinner is not necessarily better,” said Yuni Choi, vice president. “It might be dirt cheap, but you’ll be paying the price later. So bigger is better in people’s minds—and not just thickness, but the size of the plank too.”
The company had on hand its Comfort Core Technology, which it unofficially launched last year but is now shipping. The line features a patented layer that blends optimal ratios of vinyl, EVA pad and SPC thickness to help deliver a comfortable and quiet flooring without sacrificing any of the benefits of standard vinyl flooring.
The company has also diversified its sourcing after the challenges that arose in 2023. “We were 100% sourcing out of China—it’s beneficial for us because we have a Shanghai office with a full flooring staff there—but we’re also sourcing out of Vietnam, India and now Thailand.”
Bella Flooring is also focusing on quality for 2024, launching new product features like EIR, anti-microbial finishes and thicker planks. “For us, it’s all about making sure that we give simple solutions for the end user’s needs,” said Paul Dominie, president. “We’re also seeing this really cool shift in the rigid core category, and we’re gravitating toward a race to the top—building better quality, better value in all of our products. So that’s our mentality, that’s our goal, that’s what we’re doing.”
For SLCC, it was all about unique visuals. “We want to be able to provide something that plugs a hole for the retailer, that is not being shown by too many vendors,” said Vinny Circosta, chief influence officer. “Last year, our Painted Sky quickly became our No. 1 selling product. Now we’ve taken it and we’re offering the same colors in a herringbone option—so a little bit more stylistic in design. We’re looking at thicker wear layers, deeper realism but still competitively priced.”
Bjelin has evolved from a technology provider to a product producer as well. Last year, it introduced its first SPC line and Hannes Lindblom, head of product management, surface technology, said the company plans to expand the line moving forward. “We’re focusing on our hardened wood, based on the Woodura technology, as well as our SPC/rigid core collection, which is produced by one of our partners in Taiwan,” he explained. “We have eight different colors in the line. We’re going to look over the product range and see how can we develop it going forward.”
Lux Flooring highlighted SPC at the show as well: Royal Oaks and Glenn Manor. Two high-end products. Pacific Acres and Regal Heights, which were also on hand, are more competitively priced. All offer the company’s Diamond Dust finish. In terms of style, Woodrow noted clean looks are in as they more closely resemble the wood floors they are meant to mimic—and Lux’s are hard to beat.
WPC hits the mark
SPC may have outpaced WPC’s growth in the last few years, but if this year’s show is any indication WPC is fighting back. Without the same quality issues SPC experienced in the field last year, suppliers were confident in releasing new WPC lines that meet the consumer’s needs.
For example, TISE 2024 saw the return of Piet Dossche with International Flooring Company (IFC). The company is run by Dossche and his two sons, Julian and William. The company is cracking into WPC with a 25-SKU lineup and the potential for 45%-50% margins, according to IFC. What’s more, the company’s new Canopy brand focuses on a tech-first go-to-market strategy and geographical exclusivity for its dealer partners.
BHW also entered the WPC space, unveiling Freestone—its first WPC. “We’re still seeing a lot of requests for WPC, although we haven’t done WPC in the past,” said Jason Grant, vice president. “So, we launched 5.5mm WPC with a 1mm pad, 9 x 60, with a 20-mil wear layer in eight colors in that. This includes more hickory designs.”
The company also launched two SPC lines (Heartland and Summit) and a glue-down LVT.
The Dixie Group continues to invest in its hard surface business, introducing 64 SKUs in 2024, its biggest launch yet. Most of the emphasis is on WPC, with 24 new products. “We feel WPC is the best surface for resilient flooring,” said Mike Johnson, vice president, hard surface. “Customers want beautiful, they want comfort, and you get that with WPC.”
TDG’s Prime Pinnacle WPC, in planks sizes up to 12 x 90, was a Surfaces favorite, according to Johnson. “Longer/wider formats continue to sell,” he said. “Everyone wants bigger.”
Glue down and loose lay constructions also saw some play. While they might not be as popular as their rigid core brethren, they still pack a lot of punch. Happy Feet, for example, touted its virgin vinyl with a new glue-down and loose-lay product called Quarry. It’s a 5mm, 28-mil product available in six designs: Travertine, Stone, Quartzite, Slate, Concrete and Terrazzo.
Showing interest in sheet
Believe it or not, sheet vinyl wasn’t the odd man out at this year’s show as some suppliers noted elevated interest in the subcategory.
“All three weeks of shows over [January], we got bum rushed right at the beginning with people looking for sheet specialists,” said Jason Surratt, president, Tarkett Home. “We’ve seen certainly a lift on selling some of our off goods or promotional goods, but we’ve also had some promotions running on our running line and seeing some heavy stocking orders. So, is it a declining category? Yes; but it’s still very viable in the marketplace.”
Tarkett showed off its new Main Street product in vinyl sheet at the show, which features 16 visuals. “Similar to last year, we’re really trying to do things with vinyl sheet that you can’t do in SPC,” Surratt noted.
Mannington, too, saw sheet vinyl’s celebrity rise at TISE 2024. “Sheet vinyl is still plugging along,” said David Sheehan, senior VP residential product. “We measure our sales every day, because this is a selling event for us. And we sold a lot of sheet vinyl rolls [on Wednesday]—and we don’t have any new products. We’ve moved to an every-other-year introduction with sheet vinyl. So I’m excited. We sold more sheet vinyl [on Wednesday] than we did all three days last year.”
