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Flooring America and Flooring Canada Go Green With New Cork Collection
Manchester, NH (March 7, 2007) — It’s renewable, it’s resilient, and it’s a hot fashionable look that’s on the rise.
It’s cork, once a niche floor covering for the trendsetting set and environmentally conscious, but now a surface making double-digit inroads in the mainstream marketplace. And to meet the growing consumer demand, Flooring America and Flooring Canada are doubling their offerings of this unique, environmentally friendly product.
“This was once a niche floor covering for a select group of consumers who specifically sought out the product,” said Debi Binder, Flooring America’s vice president of marketing. “It’s always been valued for being organic and unique, but it’s becoming extremely popular as more and more homeowners discover the benefits of this beautiful, durable surface with superior warmth, comfort, and noise suppression. It’s not just green, it’s a great floor!”
Flooring America and Flooring Canada will add 15 SKUs of cork – all presented in its own display – that are exclusive to parent company CCA Global. While still representing a small percentage of the floor covering business, cork generates strong loyalty among customers who own it, and a high percentage of repeat business.
“The customers who know about cork are extremely loyal to the product,” said Bill Snowdon, Flooring America’s director of hard surface merchandising. “They want it, and rarely return to the surface they had before they got cork. It’s a product that fits very nicely into our goal to increase our selection of renewable products nationwide, and to exceed the expectations of our customers. We predict continued strong growth in this segment of the business, and this new cork line will be a great enhancement for member stores and offer more great choices for our customers.”
Cork is produced by stripping the bark from cork trees every 10 years – the trees are not cut down and the bark grows back. The material is anti-allergenic and anti-static, and with roughly 100 million air cells per cubic inch of material, it’s incredibly quiet with superb insulation properties. Most of the cork worldwide is harvested from trees in Spain, Portugal and Tunisia. The material is ground up and then pressed into tiles or planks and treated with a finish that makes cork more durable than traditional hardwood.
Flooring America and Flooring Canada with a sales volume of $1.65 billion consist of more than 580 member-owned floor covering stores through the United States and Canada. Flooring America and Flooring Canada provide members with exclusive brands and warranty programs, comprehensive multi-media advertising programs, complete Showroom merchandising packages, plus training in management and sales. They operate as a division of CCA Global Partners, the world’s largest flooring group. For information on becoming a member, call Bill Hosner at 866-315-8705. Flooring America and Flooring Canada logos can be downloaded at www.weintraubadv.com/fame.
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