Hi,

Great board for all things wood flooring related.

I am going to be starting a distribution business selling high quality, imported wood floors (engineered) and wanted to get a feel for what is important to the retail stores when they pick up an imported product. My understanding is with the contraction in the market the last few years and players like Lumber Liquidators supplying the market with products that are very price competitive for homeowners, import flooring has been increasing in market-share of wood flooring products in the US.

What is important for a retailer when deciding to carry an imported brand that has good quality? I assume there are a lot of floors from China and other countries that are being sold to retailers, but what differentiates the good products from the rest? Does it always come down to wholesale price?

What are some positive things and negative things store owners like about the sale process with manufacturers / distributors?

Also what is the typical margin for retailers on engineered products?

My business will be trying to address any concerns or suggestion retailers have (as they will be my main clientele) in this challenging environment, which is why any information from retailers and pros alike would be appreciated. Please do not limit your input to the above questions as any input in what would be helpful for my company to break into the market will be appreciated. Our target market of retailers will initially be Southern California, but our distribution rights will incorporate most of the West Coast.

Thank you,

Ali

Is it me or are there no retailers / store owners in this forum?

Could be, but I am certain there's more installers here than anywhere. NFT had a forum for retailers but took it down, so I know of no other...least any you could post questions like that and not get asked for money.

Flooring people in general do not do the web. Probably has something to do with who is running the show; IE older generations paying the tabs and using old school types of advertising etc. I expect the younger generation to pick up on it sometime in the future. Question has always been when.

As far as a quality engineered, I would say if you can duplicate an engineered that looks like a solid you're in the right direction. Things like wear layer thickness and especially longer lengths. I get so tired of seeing the same old thing, 2mm wear layer, boards same ole 12 to 48 inches if that.

Sure price is always an issue especially in this market unless you can create that one of a kind "gotta have it" product.

I would check my sources and tell them they are nutso. According to this weeks HMR report us imported floors is down 95% from its hayday in 2005.

@KevinD

What are your sources?

You think the big three, who have 60% of their product SKU's tied up in imported floors are just drop shipping them from China? I dont see that being feasible for the scale of their operations. Also, who has been giving the big three the most competition for the last decade? Local flooring manufacturers with overhead translating to higher prices or lower priced good from overseas, which are no longer inferior in quality if not better (Floor Covering Weekly)?

1.) My manufacturer is shipping 17 containers as of this month. Thats up from last year, and their operation is very small time, and lacks a real sales team.

2.) NWFA 2009 Market Intelligence Report - Executive Summary http://www.nwfa.org/member/pdf/WoodFlooringExecutiveSummary2009.pdf

3.) Existing home sales are up 10% for September 2010.

Obviously the NWFA report is for 2009, but with home sales gradually increasing from previous years, and home centers reporting more retail activity, I hope I am not missing something your sources are informing you on.


@Ken Fisher
I agree that the web is the future, being young myself.

I was doing some product reviews on Shaw and Mohawk's website, and they seem to be producing products with 5 plys on average and 2 mm wear layer, advertising them as having the perfect dimensional stability and not too thick of a wear layer as to allow cracking and more surface wear. I just saw that as methods to cut costs along with their HDF cores, which might be more stable and sustainable, but might also be more adversely effected by changes in humidity.

My product was once distributed by Shaw, and is of good quality. 11 ply on average. 9 coats of UV cured aluminum oxide finish. 3 mm wear layer, and good options on smooth face and textured surfaces in domestic hardwoods and exotic hardwoods.

I appreciate your input on product quality, very insightful.

www.hmr.com page 11 on this weeks report states that in 2005 imports were at 269,538,202 vs 10,872,393 for this year.

KevinD

I don't have the report, but I am assuming those figures are in square feet of flooring imported?

Are there specific factors besides demand which are attributed to that decrease?

Thanks,

Ali

They are in sf. Ali. Biggest reason is demand due to state of the economy of course. Add that to the fact the majority of the imported products were entry level builder type products and that area has taken the hardest hit of any in our buisness.

Appreciate it Kevin. Fortunately, we are not aiming to distribute any builder grade material. I think Lumber Liquidators has that market cornered. Our main clientele will be wholesale distributors who we will be calling on in addition addition establishing our own distribution channels with local flooring retailers.

In your opinion, is that reporting service worth it? The cost doesn't seem too expensive.

its a must have if you deal with unfinished flooring (thats my niche) . Outside of that it has some pretty informative reading andthe cost is deductable so I have been a member forever and a day.

That's a very huge drop! More like a crash. Whoaaa.

^ Its like the mortgage crisis, but for the factories upon factories exporting cheap-stuff from from abroad.

Not a fan of the eleven ply engineered and am steering my clients away from it.
Eleven plys stating balanced conctruction means a thin wear layer. Not good. You need to look at some of the better up coming manufacturers that are doing stuff like 3 ply 3/8 and multiples of that...like the old days.

@floormeintucson

Can you explain it a little further? Here is what I got so far, the product with 11 piles (something like 5/8 thickness) cross-grained and a 3 mm wear layer isn't as good because it has an overall higher profile and thus isn't as dimensionally stable as a product that has a lower overall profile?

In addition, if you have a few of the good product brands and lines for the 3/8 multiples then I would be interested in doing some research on them.

Much appreciated.