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RANGE REVIEW: FLOORING & FLOORCARE


Repair and reuse DIY and upcycling of existing products is on the rise, with a large majority of consumers looking to improve and reuse, rather than creating extra expense. It’s this, Adrian says, that is the key to Fix- A-Floor’s success. “Sales of Fix-A- Floor year on year are up over 40% and more and more retailers are discovering the benefits of Fix-A- Floor and in offering a solution to repairing loose and hollow floor tiles without the need to remove or replace flooring. “With the uncertainty that Brexit brings, consumers are looking to save money wherever possible so the trend is to repair rather than replace... Our marketplace has been hugely successful in 2018 and we expect that growth to continue at an even faster rate throughout 2019. “Consumers love products that save money, and in some cases Fix- A-Floor can save users thousands of pounds... The DIY market is huge and with consumer budgets being tight Fix-A-Floor’s growth over the last couple of years has been unprecedented.”


Innovation within the flooring sector in the past has been limited to new flooring products, however, new innovative cleaning products are coming on the market all the time and trends in floorcare have seen a “huge increase in sales of steam cleaners, cordless vacuum’s and robotic vacuums that do all the hard work for you,” says Adrian. “Trends constantly change, so


retailers need to embrace new, unique and innovative products to stay ahead of competitors and to offer customers a wide range of items to increase footfall into high street stores,” he says. Record sales in 2018 culminated with Fix-A- Floor winning the ‘Gold Flooring Innovation Award’ at last year’s National


Flooring Innovation


Awards, which Adrian says came as a “huge surprise”. “To be nominated for the Flooring innovation Award at last year’s national Flooring Show in Harrogate was amazing. Being relatively new to


the Flooring


sector, we not only won the Flooring Innovation Award, but scooped the Innovation Gold Award ahead of everybody. To be recognised by so many industry professionals shows that Fix-A-Floor really is a fantastic innovative product like no other on the market. “The judges looked at not only the innovative idea of what Fix-A-Floor does but also the simplicity of using it too,” he continues. “And with nothing else on the marketplace which solves this common problem


www.diyweek.net


they were unanimous in their verdict and Fix-A-Floor swept the board. We now have more DIY and retail stores taking Fix-A-Floor on board as a result.”


Diversify your business Liverpool based flooring company, Walton


Flooring Centre, was


established in 2011 by father- and-son team Edward and James Harper. The business was launched on a modest budget of £9,000 and the pair explained they worked seven days a week “and clocked up four measures a night” to meet unprecedented demand for their products and service. Having won the Business Expansion Award at this year’s DIY Week Awards, the company has set its sights on ambitious growth plans, with a move to a new 36,000sq ft unit in Huyton in 2019 after securing a quarter of a million pound bespoke finance package.


Despite success at the awards, managing director James Harper, says 2018 was a challenging year for trading: “2018 was a difficult year, footfall was down and engagement to our advertising platforms was down. So, to strengthen the company, we invested a lot of time into commercial market place. This has seen us secure large contracts for periods of three to five years and the list of clients is growing by the week. This will see our turnover for the 2019 financial year double based just on commercial flooring contracts.


He continues: “In Q1 of 2019 we


are also setting up two ecommerce businesses,;one for flooring (carpets, vinyl, LVT, LVT click, laminate flooring and real wood) and the other site to sell artificial grass only as we see this as one of our biggest emerging market places.”


Top trends In


“Carpets


terms of trends James says: are


starting to lean


towards pastel colours and hard flooring parquet styles are being extremely popular especially herringbone designs. The new hard flooring, which is becoming a popular choice is luxury vinyl tile click. The benefits are endless, scratch resistant, 100% waterproof easy installation and no need for expansion gaps taking away the need for beading.”


Carpet specialist, Brintons, also won big at the National Flooring Innovation Awards 2018; an event which sets out to identify products and services that are genuinely new and exceptional within the flooring sector. Brintons took home two prestigious accolades, one for


marketing, and one for design. Residential marketing manager Lisa Conway says of the win: “We are delighted to be as successful as we have been in recent awards. It is a pleasure to be recognised as a key player in flooring innovation, and to know that the industry values Brintons as a heritage, design-led brand with quality at its core.” It is important to remain on top of upcoming trends in order to get ahead of competitors and appeal to consumers, for this Lisa says patterned


carpets are the show


stoppers: “Brintons has been making luxury carpets for over 230 years and are known for unparalleled quality and stunning design. “However, while wooden floors have been centre stage in many homes in the recent past, we have seen a dramatic rise in sales in the last few years, and in particular sales of patterned carpets. Fitted carpets are back, and back with gusto. Sprawling florals and subtle, textural details will take centre stage in the flooring world.” Social media, with the use of image-focused content, such as Instagram and Pinterest has helped consumers visualise improvement and give them inspiration. Lisa explains how Brintons has taken


advantage of the prominence of digitally enhancing its brand. “Of course, there is an increased in


interest alternative carpets


with the rise of social media,” she says. “People are becoming more experimental and want to explore how certain carpets they have seen online will look in their homes. So, we developed an online visualiser to help customers engage with the carpets at a level they are familiar with and allows users to see carpets which are available at Brintons in different roomsets.” When in a time where


retail


is seeing a rapid decline, a few companies are taking elements of its business and improving them to create further opportunity, as it seems sticking to the same old approach isn’t going to keep businesses afloat anymore. James


Harper “Having


Flooring Centre looks ahead and says:


diversified


business, we managed to see success


from Walton our


financially. The market place is still weak but we are planning for a good start Q1 with Q2-Q3 getting slightly better after the hopeful decision of Brexit. Q4 should hopefully see the return of the usually busy Christmas rush which 2018 failed to deliver.”


14 JANUARY 2019 DIY WEEK 15


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