Fixing the mix to add value
Website Editor • December 18, 2019
Quality goes up market to drive better business
Balta are set to boost the value of consumer sales for UK retailers. “We all see that there is little real growth in the market so our mission is to make opportunities for better business for our customers,” says marketing director Geert Vanden Bossche.
“This is a win for everyone,” says Geert. “Of course it makes sense for Balta’s business but the approach enables retailers to make each sale more valuable with a strong story to tell on quality and performance, and consumers benefit by getting what they pay for… a better product.”
Since the project started, Balta have shown an impressive commitment to quality and carried it through across all their product development in each sector. Now they want the world to know and notice, so a major investment in Q1 will be to roll out several new ranges in the UK backed up by stylish new point-of-sale.
Having analysed the market so closely, Balta’s campaign reveals some interesting new trends. While soft saxony styles continue to sell strongly, there is also a growing apetitite for substantial, quality twists, using more robust yarns. Balta also have a little more focus on colour as a component of the portfolio. And finally, growing residential interest in modular flooring in the form of home style carpet tiles.
The Charm collection, launched in 2019 as part of Balta’s Stainsafe range, is a great example of this – a robust polypropylene twist with the versatility of three weights and 14 modern pastel colours.
Saxonies are reinvented at Balta with a new a collection of solution dyed nylon (SDN) Eternity ranges which Balta expects to have strong market appeal. The fibre offers resilient performance and the clean, bright colours associated with quality nylons together with bleach cleanable properties and an extremely high light fastness.
The Eternity ranges Primrose and Amaryllis are tenth-gauge carpets with a super-smooth touch that will be available in the UK in the first quarter with more options to come later in the year.
Balta is tuned in to interior trends and reckons more subtle colours are called for by modern consumers. Expect to see three or four shades outside the grey/beige options in every range going forward with hints of blue, green and gold to the fore.
The success of Balta’s silky Satino collection will be enhanced early in 2020 with exactly this kind of recolouring for the popular Royale range, a luxurious polymide which retailers are increasingly including in their standard offer for style savvy consumers.
A host of other initiatives abound at Balta including two additions to their growing flatweave range of sisal-style polypropylene carpets (for use indoors and out) and a busy year of developments in the family-friendly Stainsafe collection.
T +32 5662 2211 • www.baltagroup.com
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