- archive 3

latest news | archive 7 | archive 6 | archive 5 | archive 4 | archive 3 | archive 2 | archive 1

EPLF presents 2004 sales statistics

In 2004, the 22 members of the EPLF European Producers of Laminate Flooring achieved worldwide sales of 417 million m2 of laminate flooring ‘made in Europe’, compared with 386 million m2 the previous year – an increase in output by the member companies of 31 million m2 (+ 8%).

The world market share of EPLF member companies is 60%. Western Europe remained the strongest sales area for the members, accounting for 25 million m2 (+10%) of the growth (2003: 227 million m2; 2004: 252 million m2), and in doing so gave Western Europe 61% of total sales, compared with 58% in 2003. As in the previous year, the strongest individual market was Germany, with sales of 77 million m2 (2003: 63), followed by Great Britain with 47 Mio. m2 (2003: 49), France with 34 Mio. m2 (2003: 37) and the Netherlands with 18 Mio. m2 (2003: 16).

Eastern Europe yielded only a small increase in sales in 2004, with EPLF members achieving a total of 67 million m2, compared with 63 million m2 in 2003, an increase of 6%. Within this, new EU member Poland, assumed the position of Eastern Europe’s strongest market, but with strong development in the other new EU members Hungary and Czech Republic and the EU candidate Romania.

The North American market showed further strong growth, with sales by EPLF members reaching 76 million m2 (71 million m2 in 2003), which is an increase of 6% and represents some 18% of total EPLF sales. Within North America, sales to the US alone increased from 48 million m2 in 2003 to almost 60 million m2 in 2004, an increase of 20%, according to the EPLF.

Euparal/EPLF, January 2005

The London Floor Show

The London Floor Show is a new event from the organisers of the National Floor Show that runs each September in Harrogate. The London Floor Show will take place 22 up to 23 February 2005 at Olympia, London.

The London Floor Show is a flooring trade event providing visitors with a specific focus upon manufacturers and suppliers of carpet, vinyl, tools, wood, rugs, matting, underlays, floor preparation, laminates and accessories. Due to it’s central London location, the event hopes to attract a high proportion of trade professionals (both contract and retail) from London and the South East, whilst also bringing in buyers from the wider UK flooring market. Exhibitors include All in One Supplies, Ardex, Barham Wood Floor Sales, Becker Acroma, Chapel Parket, Di Legno Interiors, Halls Flooring, Hamberger, Interfloor, Mapei, Panaget, Reeve Flooring, Responsive Designs, Taylor Adhesives, Thomsit Flooring.

Euparal/London Floor Show, January 2005

End-of-show report Domotex 2005

“Visitor turnout and high caliber of the attending professionals was echoed in exhibitors’ positive ratings of Domotex 2005. More than 90 percent of the exhibiting firms indicated that they had reached their intended target groups.”

They rated Domotex 2005 well on all evaluation criteria: visitor turnout at stand, number of detailed business talks, number of new leads generated plus prospects for favorable post-show business. At 43,500 attendees, turnout was much higher than expected, according to the organizers of the show (2004: 46,000). The number of participating exhibitors reached 1,226 (compared with 1,185 in 2004 and 1,061 in 2003). Domotex 2005 saw a marked increase in visitor figures from the Netherlands (up 26 percent) and Turkey (up 36 percent). Not in the official statistics but clear to see for everyone: Chinese exhibitors were pretty dominant as suppliers of wooden flooring and laminates in Hall 9. On the parquet side, the trend towards warm brown and red tones continues. Manufacturers of laminated floor coverings prefer darker hues, but are now also bringing out imitation tile and stone products.
The next Domotex Hannover will be held from Saturday, 14 January to Tuesday, 17 January 2006, next year without competition from BAU in Munich.

Euparal/Deutsche Messe, January 2005

Growth of Domotex Asia continues

The growth of trade show Domotex Asia / Chinafloor 2005 continues: over 600 exhibitors will show their products to an estimated 20,000 visitors, and all major Chinese floor covering producers and buyers will be in attendance in Shanghai from March 22 to March 24, 2005.

According to the organizers, the international dimension is becoming extremely important, as every year more international companies show their products and international professionals continue to search for business deals and sourcing possibilities. To make room for the enlargement of former exhibitors and new exhibiting companies, the organizers have reserved an extra hall. The China Laminate Flooring Association will have presentations by their members in hall 3. This association consists of 15 companies like Kronosenhua, Power Dekor, Vöhringer and Huili. In hall 1, pavilions from Belgium, Germany, and the Netherlands (among others) will again be present.

Euparal/VNU Exhibitions, January 2004

Update patent matters

The Unilin Group, the Berry Group, Faus, Pergo and others are still involved in the continuing story of patent issues.

The Unilin Group said that the Canadian Patent Office on November 2, 2004, granted its first patent, CA 2226286, on glueless clic-systems for flooring applications. The company said the patent offers the same protection as its earlier granted US equivalent US 6390 836 and protects gluefree joints which have pretension and gluefree joints which allow to be installed by angling on the long side and by sliding on the short side. Based on this US patent, the Unilin Group recently launched legal proceedings against Quality Craft. The now granted Canadian patent brings the Unilin group the means to enforce its patent rights also in Canada.

In January Pergo filed an infringement and copyright action suit against Faus for infringement related to their sale of accessories in the US. The complaint alleges that the Faus group FasTrim product both infringes the patent and copyright rights of Pergo.

In December Alloc Inc., Berry Finance NV and Välinge Innovation AB filed a complaint alleging patent infringement against Kronotex US for its sales of the Easy Lock Flooring product in the district court for the northern district of Illinois. The complaint is based on the US patent 5,516,579 (‘579) of Välinge Innovation AB, which covers locking of floor panels using an angling connection. Alloc Inc. is the exclusive licensee of the Välinge Innovation AB patents in North America.

In January the Federal District Court in the Northern District of Illinois (USA) has entered judgment in favor of the Berry Floor Group, Alloc Inc. and Välinge Innovation AB. In the judgment, the Court ordered the Illinois distributor Westcott Hindmarsh to stop selling Quality Craft’s Chinese-made Duraclick laminate flooring in the United States until the Valinge ‘579 patent expires, which does not occur until 2015. The judgment is significant, says Berry Floor, because it is the first time that infringing laminate flooring made in China was deemed to infringe the Valinge ‘579 patent.

Euparal/Unilin/Berry/Faus/Pergo, December 2004-January 2005

BAU 2005 bigger than ever

Biannual trade fair BAU 2005 promises to be bigger than ever, with 170,000 square meters of exhibition space and 1800 companies taking part. For the first time, BAU will be dedicating an entire section of the fair to flooring.

The World of Flooring’ will cover about 30,000 sq m and display parquet, linoleum, PVC, rubber, cork and laminate flooring. BAU 2005 will take place in Munich, January 17 up to 22. Prominent flooring companies will be present, such as Amorim, Bauwerk, Berry, Egger, Hain, Haro, HDM, Kährs, Kaindl, Kronospan, Kronotex, Meister-Leisten, Pergo, Tarkett and Terhürne. Domotex 2005 will be held from January 15 up to 18 in Hannover, therefore partly overlapping ‘competing’ trade fair BAU.

Bau/Euparal, December 2004

top

Flooring demand in China to climb

Demand for flooring in China is expected to climb 7 percent per year through 2008 to 2.5 billion square meters, according to a report by the Freedonia Group cited by Floordaily.com. Laminate flooring sales will expand nearly 16 percent annually through 2008 in square meters.

Demand will be stimulated by the performance characteristics of the product and supported by continuing price declines. Wood flooring sales will be benefiting from rising per capita income and a preference among many buyers for high-end and natural flooring products. New construction applications account for the majority of sales in China. Furthermore, a recent report by the International Tropical Timber Organisation (ITTO) indicated that China would require 70,000 sq m of wooden flooring and 50,000 wooden doors for its sports venues, 190,000 sq m of wooden flooring for its hospitals, and five million sq m of flooring and 31,000 wooden doors for its hotels in its preparations for the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

Floordaily/ITTO/Euparal, November 2004

top

FEP opens up membership

The members of the European Federation of the Parquet Industry (FEP) have recently agreed to a change of statutes opening up membership of the organisation to ‘associated members’.

Eligible for associated membership are companies supplying the parquet industry with hard- and softwood, glues, lacquers, machinery and equipment, services, etc. FEP President Dieter Betz stressed that through opening up its membership, FEP aims at installing a real European ‘parquet cluster’ to be able to focus more actively on growing the share of parquet flooring in the flooring market in general. At present, FEP (Brussels) counts 43 parquet manufacturing companies and 6 national federations from 16 European countries.

FEP/Euparal, November 2004

top

Results Tarkett, Karelia, Armstrong

In the first nine months of 2004, Tarkett AG achieved a turnover of Euro 1,091.1 million compared to 1,064.0 million in the same period of the previous year. This corresponds to an increase of 2.5% at current exchange rates.

Sales in the Wood area increased by 0.7%, whereas the Laminate business was able to continue its growth with a strong plus of 38.1%. With a plus of 1.9%, West Europe showed a slightly positive sales development, mainly due to the sales increase of 8.4% in Great Britain and a plus of 7.4% in South Europe including the Benelux countries, while Scandinavia recorded a minus of 3.7%. Sales in North America decreased by 4.2%, whereas, at constant exchange rates, a plus of 4.1% would have been achieved.

Karelia Corporation (Upofloor, Karelia) from Finland grew profitably between January and September 2004. The net sales of the first nine months grew by 4.1% compared to the corresponding period of the previous year and amounted to 82.9 million euro (79.6). The sales between January and September developed positively in Scandinavia, Eastern and Southern Europe, whereas demand slightly declined in Central Europe. Net sales of Karelia Corporation’s wood flooring business amounted to 60.9 million euro (57.5). The group’s wood flooring business net sales grew by 5.9%. Karelia Corporation: “The latest investment of the Kuopio factory is becoming visible in bigger deliver quantities. Demand of wood flooring for installation without glue is further higher than estimated.” Furthermore, the Hartwall family plans to buy out the majority share (63,7%) of Karelia Corporation. Heikki Väänänen, the founder and Karelia Corporation’s present and future Chairman of the Board will remain company’s owner with nearly 34% share.

Armstrong Holdings reported Wood Flooring net sales of $209.4 million in the third quarter of 2004 increased 14% from $183.7 million in the prior year. This increase was primarily driven by higher sales volume and improved selling prices. Operating income of $7.1 million in the third quarter of 2004 compared to an operating loss of $9.9 million in the third quarter of 2003. The increase in operating income was primarily attributable to expenses incurred in 2003 for cost-reduction initiatives, reduced expenses in 2004 resulting from implementing those initiatives, sales volume gains and higher prices. Partially offsetting these gains were higher lumber costs. In December Armstrong Holdings announced it would close a hardwood flooring plant in Searcy, Arkansas, effective February next year. Production will be moved to other plants.

Tarkett/Karelia/Armstrong/Euparal, November 2004

top

Unilin, Faus: patent cooperation

Unilin and Faus recently announced that both companies entered into a patent cooperation agreement. Through this agreement, parties provide each other access to their respective rights on clic-systems, embossed-in-register and jointguard technology.

“This agreement further strengthens both Faus’ and Unilin’s commitment to defend and enforce their intellectual property in the laminate flooring industry,” according to a press release. Also in November, Unilin and Pergo reached an agreement to settle all outstanding issues relating to glue free laminate flooring joint systems. The agreement recognizes both companies’ patent rights for glue free joints and as a consequence the parties have agreed to remove existing legal actions against each other in the US. The legal action of Unilin against Pergo relating to the SmartLock joint filed on June 22, 2004, and the legal action of Pergo against Shaw relating to the Uniclic system filed on June 24, 2002 will both be settled. In December Unilin and German producer Parador agreed on the settlement of the current patent dispute in Germany regarding the glueless installation of laminate flooring.

Unilin/Euparal, November 2004

top

Panaget invests in second plant

French manufacturer of parquet flooring Panaget will open a second production site soon. The new plant will be situated in the town of Redon, not far from the existing factory in Bourgbarré.

Redon is to go into production in January 2005 and aims at a production of 250,000 square meters of three layer parquet per year. Bourgbarré produces around 900,000 sq m per year. Panaget will invest 6 million Euro in the new site, the next three years. Panaget belongs to the German MDB-group and achieved a turnover of 24 million Euro in 2003, 10 percent more than the year before. The company is expecting about 15 percent growth in 2004.

Panaget/Euparal, October 2004

top

Göran Bernhoff, CEO Pergo

Pergo launches wood flooring in USA

Pergo is now launching wood flooring under the Pergo brand in the US market. The Pergo wood flooring will be sold through Lowe’s, one of the world’s largest home improvement stores, with over 950 stores in North America.

The launch of wood products capitalizes on the company’s strong brand position in the US market, as well as its marketing and distribution capabilities, according to Pergo in Sweden. “By adding wood flooring we provide our customers with a wider choice of flooring products. Also, this addition adds synergies both in distribution and in logistics,” says Göran Bernhoff, President & CEO of the Pergo Group. The product will be called Pergo hardwood and comes in two different widths, offering 16 decors in total. The floor will be positioned as the premium hardwood product in Lowe’s.

Net sales of Pergo’s laminate flooring for the first six months of 2004 amounted to SEK 1,417 M (1,344). Excluding currency effects, this was an increase of 13%, compared with the year-earlier period. The operating loss for the period amounted to SEK 222 M (loss: 159). The loss includes a restructuring cost of SEK 250 M, taken in the first quarter of the year.

Pergo/Euparal, September 2004

top

Tarkett’s parquet factory in Broby (Sweden)

Tarkett: increase in net sales

In the 1st half-year 2004 Tarkett AG achieved net sales of EUR 684.8 million as compared to EUR 675.5 million in the comparable period 2003. This corresponds with an increase of 1.4% at current exchange rates and 4% at constant exchange rates.

Hardwood sales increased by 1.3% at current exchange rates, while laminate products continued their growth with an increase of 37.2%. This product category now represents 5% of the Group’s total sales. Resilient Floorings grew by 2.2%. With a slight plus of 0.9% Western Europe shows a stable sales development, mainly as a result of the 11.7% sales increase in the UK and Ireland but also due to the decline of 2.3% in Germany and of 3.3% in the Scandinavian market. Sales in Eastern Europe (including Russia) grew by 17.8%. Turnover in North America fell by 5%, even though, at constant exchange rates, sales increased by 4.1%.

The Group’s EBITA increased from EUR 52.4 million in the 1st half-year 2003 to EUR 53.3 million for the first six months 2004. Lower margins as a result of intensive competition mainly on the residential markets as well as an increase in raw material prices for residential products reduced the positive effect of increased sales volumes.

Tarkett/Euparal, September 2004

top

Result Junckers for the 1st Half of 2004

The consolidated revenue of Junckers Industrier A/S (Køge, Denmark) for the 1st half of 2004 amounted to DKK 334 million, a decline of 15% from DKK 395 million for the same period in 2003, which, according to Junckers, is in line with the expectation when the suspension of payments was discharged on 30 March 2004.

The major decrease is in the Danish market and is primarily due to reduced sales of flooring. Furthermore, the product range has been adjusted so that the production of worktops has been discontinued and the production of flooring and related products is in focus. The operating profit for the 1st half of 2004 is influenced by the measures carried out in connection with the suspension of payments period and the reconstruction of Junckers Industrier A/S. The improvement of the net profit amounting to DKK 23 million is mainly due to lower production costs and other capacity costs as well as lower financing costs. The equity has improved by DKK 287 million compared to a negative equity of DKK 24 million at the end of 2003; DKK 100 million comes from capital investment, DKK 179 from compounding and DKK 6.5 million from the operating profit in the first half of 2004. The expectation for the total revenue of flooring for 2004 continues to be approximately 15% below the level in 2003 resulting in a minor positive net profit excluding the accounting income from the compounding and the sale of land and buildings.

Junckers/Euparal, August 2004

top

Forbo Parquet AB in Tibro (Sweden)

Forbo to exit flooring business?

Forbo will from now on focus on the two businesses of adhesives and belting. For the further development of the capital-intensive flooring business (linoleum and cushion vinyl), Forbo is looking for a partnership. The complete divestment of the business is not being excluded.

Forbo: “The review of strategies, structures and operative processes has shown that the flooring business has a market position with further development potential. However, in addition to the successful development of the adhesives and belting businesses, Forbo on its own is not able to advance the flooring business fast enough and successfully participate in the market consolidation.” With linoleum and cushion vinyl, Forbo is mainly active in the resilient flooring market. Other flooring materials such as laminates, stone or ceramics recorded stronger growth in the past years.

Forbo and its products are represented mainly in Western Europe and in the contract market which is heavily dependent on the public spending policy. Expanding the product range or entering growth markets requires the massive use of financial means and management resources which are beyond Forbo’s possibilities, says Forbo. “The Board of Directors has therefore concluded that this business should be strengthened by means of a partnership and that the employees should be given a credible perspective for the future. The complete divestment of the business is not being excluded, either. The proceeds from such a divestment would be used for the further development of the core businesses – adhesives and belting – and for debt repayment.”

Forbo/Euparal, August 2004

top

Parador’s Smart-Click

The German company had always declined a membership, mainly because the EPLF did not adopt an unambiguous position concerning the present click patent law suits. Parador now believes it is not a task of the association to regulate these matters. Including Parador, the EPLF now has 22 active members.

Parador/Euparal, August 2004

top

Pergo files suit against Faus

Pergo has filed an action for damages and injunctive relief under United States and North Carolina state laws against Faus Group, Inc. and Industrias Auxiliares Faus S.L.

A press release by Pergo specifies that the suit, which was filed in U.S. District Court in Raleigh, N.C., charges Faus with copyright infringement, misappropriation of trade secrets, breach of contract, unfair and deceptive trade practices and unfair competition. The complaint alleges that Faus Group and Faus S.L. have, among other things, misappropriated Pergo’s designs and breached their contractual obligations to Pergo in their supply agreement.

“Our legal council will take care of this business in court,” said Juan Flores, general manager of Faus, to trade magazine Floor Covering Weekly. “Other than that we have nothing to add because we don’t want to air our disputes publicly. We’ve always been known in the industry by what we do and for our credibility; we want to make sure that is the case in the future. We pride ourselves on doing the right thing.”

Pergo/FCW/Euparal, August 2004

top

Karelia Corporation: positive outlooks

The net sales of Karelia Corporation between January and June 2004 amounted to 56.4 million euro (55) showing a growth of 2.5% in comparison to the corresponding period in the previous year.

Sales developed favourably in Scandinavia and in Eastern and Southern Europe as well, whereas the demand slightly declined in Central Europe. Net sales of Karelia Corporation’s wood flooring business grew slightly. Karelia states that the latest capacity investment of the Kuopio factory will become visible as bigger delivery volume by the end of the year and during 2005. The demand for wood floorings installable without glue has been stronger than estimated, thus in summer preparations where made at the wood flooring factories of the group to raise the production volume of the locking tongue-and-groove wood floorings. According to Tommi Lindbom, the managing director of the group, both wood flooring and resilient flooring business have positive outlooks for the rest of the year.

Karelia Corporation/Euparal, August 2004

top

FEP building in Brussels

“Following the two rather bleak years 2001 and 2002, where parquet production in the FEP member countries either slightly declined or stagnated, the year 2003 seems to have been a turning point, during which the sector could again report increasing production and consumption volumes,” according to the European Federation of the Parquet Industry (FEP) in a recent press release.

Production in the ‘traditional’ FEP member countries rose by 5.6% to reach a record 65.8 million m2. Including the (partially incomplete) figures from the ‘newer’ members Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Romania, the total production amounted to 81 million m2, representing an equally high increase of 5.6% compared to 2002. This positive result was fuelled by strong production increases in Austria (+37,09%) , Poland, Spain (+9,85%) and Sweden (+7,79%) , due to the putting into operation of new production lines or increased capacities at existing parquet producing plants. This can be seen as a strong sign for the confidence of the parquet sector in the future for its products, according to FEP.

Parquet consumption in the FEP countries has risen by 4.6% to a volume of 84.2 million m2. Striking in this context is the very positive figure from the Nordic countries, though the high growth rate reported for Denmark/Finland/Norway (+22,14%) may rather relate to an improved reporting system and a higher consumption volume in previous years as well. Spain (+8,48%) has confirmed its position as an expanding market and Belgium (+10,68%) could also report good results. The figures for Sweden (+5,38%), the Netherlands (+5,00%) and Italy (+4,00%) do not differ much from the average. Consumption in Germany declined 0,54%.

During 2003, the share of multilayer production rose to 78% in the ‘traditional’ FEP countries, to the detriment of the other parquet types. Production of mosaic fell by close to 34%, leaving the product with only a 2% share in overall production. The production volumes of other types of solid parquet also declined (lamparquet –11.6% and solid –3.4%). The production of mosaic within the FEP community has clearly been relocated to the newer members in some of the countries recently adhering to the European Union.

Euparal/FEP, June 2004

top

Pergo and Witex in arbitration

Arbitration has been initiated this month between Pergo and the bankruptcy estate of Witex. This procedure is a consequence of the mutual claims in connection with the partnership agreement, according to a press release from Pergo. In 2000, Pergo and Witex entered a partnership agreement.

Pergo terminated the agreement in 2002 claiming that Witex was in breach of the agreement on several issues. In 2003, Pergo entered an agreement with HW Industries about acquiring Witex, but the acquisition was cancelled when Witex entered into bankruptcy later that same year, explains Pergo. Witex says it wants to sue Pergo for damages of 38 million Euro “for a breach of its contractual obligations toward Witex and the improper release of a press release in May 2003.”

Euparal/Pergo/Witex, June 2004

top

Tarkett’s CEO Marc Assa

Tarkett: first quarter results 2004

Tarkett achieved a turnover of 341,5 Mio Euro in the first quarter 2004 compared to 345,4 Mio Euro in the first quarter 2003, a decrease of 1.1 %. Net sales for the first quarter were 329,7 Mio Euro, a decrease of 1.3 %.

At constant exchange rate, the Group’s net sales increased by 2.7%. In Western Europe, in spite of a difficult market environment, sales increased by 0,5 %, as a consequence of the introduction of new products and new branding and marketing policy in the residential sector. Sales of hardwood increased by 9.2 % in a growing market environment on both sides of the Atlantic (+ 1.9). Sales of laminates continued their high growth trend with a plus of 37.1 % versus prior year. (+34.6). The first quarter EBITA amounted to 24.6 Mio Euro compared to 26 Mio Euro in 2003. Against the background of significant increases in the cost of raw materials it will be difficult to reach the goal of surpassing 2003 profitability, as reported by Tarkett.

Euparal/Tarkett, June 2004

top

Click joint disputes continue in USA

On the 22nd of June 2004 Unilin has initiated a lawsuit against Pergo Inc and Pergo AB in the State of Delaware (USA). The basis for the lawsuit is the supposed infringement by unlicensed Pergo Smartlock joints of Unilin’s US 6 490 836 patent.

“Although Pergo has already recognised Unilin’s rights on Smartlock in Europe and has a license for it, Pergo refuses to accept the parallel U.S. patents,” claims Unilin. One of Pergo’s main customers of Smartlock joints in the U.S. is Lowe’s. Pergo says it “remains confident that its pioneering work in click joints was conducted well before the work claimed in Unilin's patent and that Unilin's patent cannot be upheld in view of Pergo's earlier work. Unilin is well aware of Pergo's earlier work.” Earlier this month Unilin issued a press release stating that Parador agreed to abandon the U.S. market for its glueless laminates due to risks related to the Unilin U.S. patents. Further, Parador had to pay a down payment to Unilin for its past sales of glueless laminates in the U.S. Parador on the other hand states that Unilin’s announcement reached them after they had already decided to abandon the US-market, mainly due to “a lack of positive perspectives” on that market.

On the 24th of May 2004 the U.S. Supreme Court denied the petition filed by the Berry Group to overturn the decision by the Courts of Appeal for the Federal Circuit of the 10th of September 2003. This final decision confirms that Unilin’s Uniclic-system is not infringing 3 Berry US patents. Berry initiated this lawsuit already in 2000. Berry reacts by stating that this decision means that the stay in the pending district court cases is no longer applicable and that these cases will be reactivated to determine whether or not the products involved infringe upon the three mentioned patents, as well as on other newly granted US patents. Berry: “For the time being, import of gluefree laminate flooring products into the US can be continued by the other companies.” Berry says it is determined to actively proceed with these district court cases where a judge and a jury will decide upon infringement or not of the relevant patents.

To be continued ...

Euparal/Unilin/Pergo/Parador/Berry, May-June 2004

top

Pergo and Classen sign partnership agreement

Laminate flooring companies Classen (Germany) and Pergo (Sweden) have signed a long-term partnership agreement for all Western European markets with the exception of Germany.

Through the agreement Pergo will be given the exclusive right to sell and distribute products from Classen, to primarily Pergo’s customers in the retail and pro segments throughout Western Europe.The partnership will enable Pergo to offer products also in the medium-price segments.

Euparal/Pergo, May 2004

top

2003: German market relatively stable

Consumption of parquet floors remained more or less stable in Germany last year on almost 19.5 million m2, according to unofficial figures of the VDP, the association of German parquet floor manufacturers.

Despite the relatively favourable consumption figures of 2003, consumption has dropped almost a quarter with respect to the record year 2000. Production of parquet floors increased last year with approximately 400,000 m2, up to in total 10.33 million m2. Imports decreased about 7 percent up to slightly below 15 million m2. Entirely in line with the statistics of recent years mosaic parquet flooring lost market share: internal production is now less than 1 million m2. Multi layer floors won market share again. Beech is the dominant wood species for multi layer parquet, solid parquet is most often made of oak-wood. Tropical wood species have a share of around 6 per cent in production. Wide plank flooring is also gaining in popularity.

Euparal/VDP, May 2004

top

PROFILE | NEWS | AGENDA | MEMBERS | E-MAIL | ADDRESS | LINKS