Is 2015 a harbinger of the future?

Last year, the flooring industry grew by a modest 4 percent – not bad at all. Better still, I think the industry has turned a corner and expect that 2015’s growth will set the stage for further growth in the coming years, as it already has for this year. There are lots of positive variables in place that support that view: housing is stabilized and steadily growing and there is a demand for new inventory, the leading edge of Millennials have entered their home buying years (or at least getting out of their parent’s basements years), unemployment is stable in spite of recent sluggishness, and even the remodel market is showing renewed signs of life.

Looking at flooring specifically, there are several bright spots. LVT was the lead dog with sales growth of 26.7 percent. That is not expected to slow down any time soon. It reminds me of the earliest days of laminate. That was some 20 years ago but what laminate as a category did for the flooring industry was to capture the imaginations of consumers, getting them to come into the store and redo their floors. It excited them, it excited the industry in general and retail in particular. There were innovations coming out in everything from the printed surface to the locking systems that came to redefine the category. Consumers came out in droves. I often joke that a lot of guys I know put their kids through college selling laminate flooring.

Well, that same type of excitement, of innovation, of consumer interest and spending is here again, only this time with LVT. But that’s only if you get on board and do so fast. LVT growth will not wait for you. You need to be actively selling, promoting, looking for new suppliers, and you need to be doing all of that now. You need to help lead that charge.

I’ve said it before. Get moving. If the hard surface stores and home centers come to dominate this category early on, it will be nobody’s fault but our own, and when I say “our,” I’m talking specialty retail.

One more thing, LVT is not alone among hard surface flooring categories that saw its share of growth – ceramic tile, hardwood, stone, all these are also growing. You need to make sure you’re a part of it. After all, there’s a whole new generation of kids out there who need to be put through college.


Santiago Montero