Segment Reviews
Flooring North America
Growth Potential
With residential remodeling and new home construction growing, the segment is launching the most comprehensive of new collections in its history to drive sales through unique style and unsurpassed performance.
A Conversation with
Paul De Cock
The pandemic defined 2020 for most businesses and industries. How did the Flooring North America team adapt?
In addition to prioritizing workplace safety, we supported our customers through webinars and online content that focused on managing through the pandemic and how to access government assistance. We even transformed facilities with sewing equipment into production centers for medical gowns and masks.
After the market collapsed in the second quarter, our inventories were very low because we expected a slow recovery. Instead, the market rapidly rebounded as people started remodeling and moved to larger homes. We were prepared.
Our 2020 collections were ready to fully launch as lockdowns went into place, and our new merchandising was packaged and ready to ship when specialty retailers reopened. We creatively managed inventory and scheduled production to deliver goods for our customers.
When common carriers were not able to absorb the rapid expansion of volume, our supply chain and transportation network ensured our flooring was shipping reliably, enabling retailers and contractors to satisfy their customers. As we responded better to the disruption than most of our competition, our sales grew in the second half.
Sustainability continues to be a differentiator for your business. What is your strategy there?
We invest in developing sustainable products and processes to do what’s right for people, our planet and our profitability. Many of the restructuring actions we have taken reduce water and energy consumption and lower material waste. We believe what’s good for the environment is good for our business. The actions we take today benefit our company and our world tomorrow.
You mentioned the importance of having the right products available for consumers. What’s in the pipeline for 2021?
During 2020, our product development team never slowed down. We reinvigorated all of our product lines, which has resulted in one of the largest residential launches in our history this year.
We have fully overhauled our proprietary, super-soft SmartStrand line, and we are releasing carpet collections that are hypoallergenic and totally recyclable, utilizing patented backing technology that makes them faster and easier to install.
For all our hard surface products, we are adding revolutionary waterproof technology, which will protect against water damage all the way to the subfloor. We have introduced the first truly waterproof wood flooring, which also features unsurpassed scratch, dent and wear resistance.
We make a difference for our customers every time a salesperson tells a consumer: “You will not believe how great this product is!” Innovation drives excitement; excitement drives sales.
LVT remains a fast-growing and rapidly evolving category in your market. What is your LVT strategy?
Our LVT strategy is no different than our other product strategies: we create value through differentiation and unique benefits. To bring superior products to market, we opted to produce LVT domestically rather than rely entirely on imports like most of our competitors. Engineers from our European operations have helped us reformulate LVT body composition and adjust our equipment to increase output.
Our manufactured collections include market-leading design and features, with more realistic visuals and greater scratch, dent and fading resistance. We are also leveraging the value of our well-known brands to reinforce confidence in our products with the consumer. We supplement our manufactured offering with targeted collections sourced from around the world, which ensures that we provide a comprehensive array of products at every price point.
How are your restructuring initiatives progressing?
We had begun restructuring initiatives on many levels before the pandemic emerged. We identified ways to consolidate operations to reduce overhead while maintaining capacity to serve our customers. We also invested in advanced technology to replace older, less efficient equipment.
We have creative engineers who have made countless enhancements to our processes to increase speeds and outputs, as we work to normalize our inventory levels following the unique circumstances of 2020.
With advanced information technology, we analyze detailed data in real time to react faster to problems and improve our execution. This has enhanced our raw material utilization, reduced our process variation and lowered waste. We have also improved our planning strategies to increase yields and productivity through fewer changes and longer production runs.
