Floor covering is a dynamic industry. While a glance at 2016 numbers may not excite you — growth was just a 4.4 percent increase in sales; we have yet to reach the height of sales achieved back in 2007 (sales were $26.09 billion); and, carpet continues to lose market share — I contend that if you put these numbers in perspective, they are impressive.
Indeed, the big picture tells a different story than just one year of numbers. Take a look at
Graph 1 (page 8) — a 20-year review of floor covering sales. Things bottomed out in 2011 when sales went down to $16.46 billion. Wow. That’s a $10 billion dive from just four years before. Then look at the next five years — five years of slow but sure growth.
And that growth was hard fought. It seemed at times more like a very slow dig. But all of this growth was realized during a time when the world was rapidly changing. Technology in fact has changed everything. The consumer today is much different than the consumer a decade ago. It’s not just the Millennials that are plugged in 24/7. Who among us leaves home without a smartphone and/or tablet? I’m guessing the answer is none of us.
We don’t just expect immediate gratification, we demand it. We want it all. After spending months browsing flooring on Pinterest or Houzz or bouncing from site to site, the consumer knows that she can get great looking flooring that also performs well.
And this industry has delivered. Even as sales inched forward over the last five years, new technology came to light improving both the look of the product and the performance. Digital technology can make a product look like anything you want. Ceramic can look like wood, luxury vinyl tile (LVT) can look like stone. And floors can be waterproof and dent-resistant. Even carpet can be softer than soft as well as durable and cleanable.
2016 was, in fact, a pretty good year on many levels. To put this, our
25th Statistical U.S. Floor Covering Report, in perspective, this is only the second year that we have separated luxury vinyl tile (LVT) from resilient numbers. We had to. That subcategory has eclipsed sheet vinyl sales. And I suspect that in the near future, we will need to separate multilayer flooring products as well.
So when you look at the drop in carpet market share, remember that it is competing against more “categories” of flooring than ever before. That’s why companies are diversifying — to be flexible and nimble to change and have what the customer is looking for.
In addition to making better looking product, better performing product and creating brand new categories of product, suppliers are also aggressively going after more square footage in a home, specifically up the walls.
Laminate, hardwood, LVT and, of course,
tile, are all going after this additional space to increase sales. We’ve talked about it quite a bit here in FCW and I expect that we will continue to look at these creative uses for floor covering.
This report is more than numbers on a page, it’s everything around and behind the numbers that tells the story. And it’s a good story to tell.
