Mannington received four of 11 FCW Dealers’ Choice Awards for 2022
[Salem, N.J.] Mannington Mills’ 107 year history has been rooted in controlling its own destiny through design, manufacturing and acquiring companies that allow it to serve its retail customers better. During a recent visit to Salem, FCW had the chance to talk with president of Mannington Residential Zack Zehner who revealed what the company has been focused on prior to, during and coming out of the pandemic.
Among Mannington’s focus has been it’s go-to-market strategy as it continues to integrate Phenix — its acquisition finalized in January 2020 — into the fold and become a full service supplier for its residential retail customers. That, explained Zehner, is centered on allowing the company to be more important to the floor covering retailer.
“We go to market the best way to go to market by region,” he said, adding that in some areas the company will go direct but in others, “We have really strong distributor partners” in hard surface that the company will continue to work with. “We can’t be complacent in any region,” he added.
Indeed, with Phenix, Mannington now offers its customers a full assortment of carpet as well as its legacy foothold in the resilient, hardwood and laminate categories.
Innovation to Sell by
With its expanded portfolio in place, Mannington is laser focused on providing its retail partners with innovation that is meaningful to their customer, the consumer.
“We are a premium supplier and provide differentiation in every category in the market,” Zehner said. For example, he noted, “We are the leading extruder of nylon.” The company’s Forever Plus, he said, “That’s been a powerful story to drive to the consumer.”
Innovation isn’t done for the sake of change, emphasized Zehner, but focused on something that the consumer can actually see and feel. This includes things such as the FCW Dealers’ Choice winning CraftedEdge technology which takes a page from the company’s hardwood handbook when it comes to providing product realism. “The evolution of the bevel in LVT — you can see the uniquely crafted look of real engineered hardwood,” Zehner pointed out.
And in a world where the presence of germs causes heightened anxiety, providing products that are complete with a clean story makes an impact. This is another area the company is able to address with Microban, which came with the Phenix acquisition. Microban is now offered across multiple product categories. “Microban is another meaningful innovation,” Zehner offered.
As laminate is realizing a renewed consumer interest and attention, Mannington has long been in the laminate category positioning itself with a premium story. “We want to keep adding value to that category,” he said.
And while the company works to provide differentiation of product, Zehner noted, Mannington is also making sure, “we have different products at different price bands.”
As well, the company is in the process of rolling out a rebranding and launching a new website. Teased Zehner, “Website, we’re very consumer focused on that journey. It’s operational excellence and sales excellence.” Customers will see the rebranding take shape at Surfaces in January. The website will be up and running November 2022.
Operational Excellence
Acquiring Phenix was indeed a strategic move to gain market share. And while the transition has gone smoothly, Zehner said they are still implementing SAP. “It takes months of mapping,” he said, noting that the company has gone through this with other acquisitions. “Every time we do this, we know it pays off. It’s a big investment but the retailers can feel the service over time. It touches all parts of the business.” The system went live mid-August and Zehner noted the company didn’t lose a day of servicing its customers.
“To be direct, you have to have scale and this [facilitates that],” he said, adding that other integrations include the salesforce, marketing and design. “It allows us to be closer to the retailer and more important to them. As consumer needs shift, we have more opportunity to engage them.”
State of the Flooring Market
Along with outlining Mannington’s current and future targets, Zehner shared some insights into where the industry is today and what its future looks like.
With Mannington’s focus on the residential remodel market and independent flooring retailer, the company keeps an eye on key indicators such as GDP projections, interest rates, inflation and housing supply. And while there is undersupply of housing, he said, “As supply chain catches up the backlog goes down. There is demand in the pipeline.
Other trends, he noted, “Private equity is growing as a source of capital — on both the supply and retail sides of the business — leading to consolidation.”
When it comes to product, he said, while LVT and laminate are taking market share within the hard surface segment, “hard surface is taking share from soft surface.”
As well, the pandemic “forced us to get better at supply chain planning, raw material management and ability to diversify raw material [sources],” Zehner shared. “We are excited that as the pandemic recedes, that we can drive our Mannington culture.”
Finally, he asserted, “Regardless of the product, retailers want to buy from people they trust. That’s one of the integration lessons.”