Features

Wood's fashion & function on display at NWFA

Thursday, July 15, 2021

Maxwell used their space here at NWFA to show off the unique installations that can be achieved with hardwood flooring.

By Amy Rush-Imber & Mallory Cruise-McGrath

[Orlando] Hardwood’s beauty and brawn were on stage here in Orlando at the National Wood Flooring Association (NWFA) Expo earlier this month. Running concurrent with Coverings 2021, the show was well attended by distributors and retailers alike and exhibitors served up new technologies and innovations putting a spotlight on all that hardwood flooring has to offer.

Demand & Traffic Up

Wood is on fire, NWFA president and CEO Michael Martin shared with FCW. “There’s a return to authenticity and looking for natural attributes,” he said. “There’s more demand than product. 2020 was best the year for NWFA’s member group — installer, contractor, manuf.”

However, because of strong demand, the word of the show was “shortage,” said Martin. “Whether it’s the product itself or people. Manufacturers aren’t able to focus on product because they don’t have the bodies. The pace for getting product out will be slower.”

NWFA’s Michael Martin caught up with FCW’s Mallory Cruise-McGrath.

Exhibitors also addressed the challenges facing the hardwood market. Wickham’s Paul Rezuke offered, “I think we are starting to see some stabilizing in raw materials. We’re hoping by fall to see less volatility.”

Here at the show, Wickham highlighted its red pine composite core. “It’s an alternative to engineered wood,” said Rezuke.

And after more than a year of virtual shows, leaders in the hardwood industry were simply excited to be together again. “People here are interested and we’ve known each other a long time,” commented American OEM’s Don Finkell.

“Business has been very good,” said Wade Bondrowski, director of U.S.A sales, Mecier Hardwood Flooring. “We’re being busy are trying to fill orders, but business has been as good as I’ve seen it since 2006.”

Particularly, the mid to high-end is moving very well. “We’re starting to see a return on investment with our Naked and Atmosphere collections.”

Traffic was strong at NWFA. “Traffics been great, a lot of the diamond in the rough and quality attendees — the best I’ve seen in several years,” said Mannington’s senior vice president of hardwood and laminate Dan Natkin. “We’re here to support the industry.”

Mannington’s Jeff Ausloos and Dan Natkin

Indeed, “demand has been super high,” said Mullican’s vice president of sales and marketing Pat Oakley. Mullican was on hand showing its Castillian collection of engineered European white oak flooring inspired by old growth forests seen in Europe.

Driving design in hardwood

At Emily Morrow Home, where products are made by American OEM, the focus was on its current color palette Milled Naturals with new colors to be added in 2022, according to Emily Morrow Finkell. She also noted, “It is great to be in touch and in person.”

Emily and Don Finkell

At the Maxwell booth, Rose Mary Cummings pointed to the installation there saying, “We wanted to show people what you can do with our products. We are working really hard to give the customer what they need.”

Indeed, the booth featured patterns such as herringbone as well as different colors and finishes. Noted Tommy Maxwell, “I think the consumer really wants wood.”

FCW’s Mallory Cruise-McGrath with Maxwell’s Tommy Maxwell, Kristi Prince and Rose Mary Cummings.

Harris Flooring Group showcased its newly launched Signature Springlock collection, said marketing manager Sadie Evans. Signature Springlock is an 8 SKU line of 6 ¼” by 3/8” thick products.

And in addition to expanding its Americana Escape collection to include hickory and maple offerings, Harris Group debuted a new merchandising display that holds 38 samples. “It’s a la carte,” Evans said.

The company also launched new products within its Naturally Aged Flooring (NAF) line for Main St. applications. NAF includes maple, oak and hickory products named after U.S. cities.

“We’ve been challenged by freight, labor and raw material but overall business has been good,” said vice president of sales and marketing Renee Tester. “Being domestically-sourced has given us a chance to improve relationships with our customers by being speedy and reliable in an unstable environment.”

Technology moves wood flooring forward

Hardwood makers have innovated new technologies to help products compete with even the most performance-driven categories.

AHF Products, for example, invested in its new patented Dogwood Densified Wood technology which addresses the wear and tear family and pets can have on flooring, especially dents.

The Dogwood technology, in fact, improves the hardness of the product by up 250 percent, AHF CEO Brian Carson shared with FCW.

“We’ve used industry-leading innovation to make the coating more durable. Dog scratches, for instance, can indent the actual wood underneath but with Dogwood, the wood is denser,” he said.

Produced at AHF’s plant in Somerset, Ky., Dogwood is a waterproof, antimicrobial sliced face engineered wood offering that is 8 feet long and 8 inches wide.

“Through a proprietary production process, the construction is sandwiched together in a way that makes it more durable,” said Wendy Booker.

And this, said Carson, is what allows AHF to offer species in the Dogwood line that were once not ideal for flooring. “Walnut is typically too soft for flooring but with Dogwood technology we can use it,” he said. “Dogwood is available in oak, hickory and maple, currently, and takes stain the same way as any other engineered wood product.”

Carson added AHF will soon be adding the Dogwood technology to its other plants. “We start with a thicker piece of wood but the cost to the consumer won’t be much more than any other engineered wood product,” he said. “Dogwood is a product for people with active lifestyles and kids and pets — it holds up to life.”

AHF’s Brian Carson and Wendy Booker with the company’s new Dogwood product.

Välinge has received positive feedback on its innovative Hardened Wood Floors collection featuring Woodura powder technology, said vice president of sales and marketing Zach Adams. “We’ve had numerous orders since our launch in March and have full North American coverage,” Adams said. The company recently added 200 million square feet of capacity to its plant in Croatia to make the line.

The Hardened Wood Floors collection from Välinge has received positive feedback.

“Longer and wider formats are trending — the scaling is going up. We’re also seeing color switch from gray to more natural.” — Michael Martin, NWFA

Time at NWFA was spent catching up with good friends and learning and about new product. Here, Harris Group’s Renee Tester, FCW’s Amy Rush-Imber and Swiff-Train’s Brenda Cashion chat on the show floor.