Harrogate - What's Trending

WOOL GOES MAINSTREAM

Wool is acclerating its return to favour with many product launches in what is seen as a higher margin sector to secure business in the today’s all-important middle/upper market. Notable is AW’s first wool offer in over 10 years along with Furlong’s return to natural fibre with Timeless Wool.

See also our Wool Month feature – pages 35–40

KEEP IT SIMPLE

A notable trend by the big players in flooring right now is to keep it simple – re-organising and rationalising their portfolios to make them easier for both retailers and consumers to understand the options. To some extent, this trend is expedient in a tight market – less options mean less stock, logistics and merchandising and so saving money the industry hasn’t got. But it’s a healthy trend anyhow compared to the blizzard of products (including marginal enhancements and me-toos) which suppliers have sometimes thrown into the market, hoping to catch a stray sale.

UP-MARKET UNDERLAY

If there are less buyers about, make sure they buy more. it’s always been an imperative for savvy retailers to add underlay to a sale to enhance order values.

Now, increasingly, the main underlay suppliers are offering better options to trade up consumers. Interfloor is investing in a stunning inter-galactic industry-wide promotion of underlay and companies like floorwise, Carpenter and Ball & Young have preium products for
discerning consumers.

SMOOTH OPERATORS

UK homes is often debated as the data is ambiguous – around 50/50 but with smooths winning out in most places. There has been some retailer reluctance to embrance this reality but the top carpet suppliers are all now piling in to push forward on smooths – a trend led by Invictus at AW, of course, but this year sees Abingdon launch its Simply Smooths portfolio and Balta introduce a whole new portfolio, among others.

WOOD YOU?

Retailers are often wary of wood and with some good reason. It’s an upper end sale with high consumer expecations and it comes with potential problems in terms of installation and maintenance. And that assumes you can event find a fitter! New engineered wood offers in the market such as Furlong’s Universal Click and Victoria’s Victorious are making it easier – or ask your buying group about wood. It’s a good niche for retailers to cover – check it out.