The growth of imported floorboards in Guangzhou shows a trend of growth that has attracted many foreign flooring brands to land on the beach.

The consumption of imported products in the building materials industry can be said to be commonplace, and imported tiles, paints, and sanitary ware are all familiar and often heard, seen, and used. Only the floor, it seems that has always been the state-owned brand of the world, nature, icon, Fulin and other domestic first-line floor brands occupy the majority of the Guangzhou market, rarely see the original imported floor figure. However, this situation has quietly changed this year. In the past two months, some of the world's top floor brands have gathered in Guangzhou, including Kono, Toh, Denmark, Finland, Pana, and Amerin, Portugal. This has triggered an upsurge of high-end imported floorboards in Guangzhou.

Market hits

European flooring brands get together in Guangzhou,

It is expected that in two or three years, it can be resistant to domestic flooring

In recent years, the Guangzhou floor market has always been the world of state-owned brands, and there are very few traces of imported floorboards. In fact, as early as ten years ago, imported floor brands such as Park Lane and Yun Ting were also active in the Guangzhou market. For a while, but later for various reasons gradually replaced by the domestic floor brands, it can be said that for a long time, Guangzhou's imported floor market is quiet. But this year, this situation began to subtle changes. Not only Germany's Kono, Tolch, Belgium's Fast and Easy stores, Denmark's hackers, Finland's Pana, Austria's Weitzer Park and many other world-famous flooring brands have come in. The original imported flooring has mushroomed, and even domestically produced Floor brands have also begun to import imported floorboards in an attempt to capture the market share of high-end flooring.

At the beginning of July, Nature's original imported floor store was put into trial operation in Panyu Jishengweibang Building Materials Museum. It has represented 11 international top-level wood flooring brands in nine countries including Kono in Germany, Danish hacker and Amerin, Portugal. Among them, Kono, Germany As the world's top-selling flooring brand, Amering is the world's largest producer of softwood flooring, and Qashqai is the first producer of geothermal solid wood flooring. Just half a month later, LAK Europe imported flooring stores officially opened in the Zhujiang New Town Jockey House, under the agency of Finland's Parla, Germany's Togh, Italy's Steyr and other top European flooring brands. Coupled with Sweden's Park Lane, Austria's Weitzer Park, Belgium's fast and easy stores, etc., the original imported flooring in the major home stores emerge, opening up a new chapter in Guangzhou imported floor consumption.

In the past two years, the growth rate of imported flooring in the market is very impressive. According to Wang Weidong, general manager of Nature Guangzhou, due to various objective factors, the growth of the entire domestic flooring industry last year was almost zero, but the growth of imported flooring was as high as 50%. In the first half of this year, due to the influence of the environment, the entire domestic flooring industry and even the home industry have shown a downward trend, and total sales have decreased by about 30%, but the imported floor has shown a trend of reverse market growth. In the interview with the reporter, Ma Huinan, the owner of the Swedish Boley Flooring Store, said that the Park Lane store is the earliest import floor in Guangzhou, and it has commissioned three import floors, including Boland Sweden, Andermont Austria and Weitzpark. Brand, from the perspective of market sales, the sales of imported floorboards in the first half of the year were the best in the past two years. According to Zhen Zhenqiu, Chairman of Guangzhou Six-color Building Materials Co., Ltd., who has represented several imported floor brands, the consumption of floorboards imported from Guangzhou is showing a rising trend. It is expected that in the next two to three years, it will be able to compete with domestic-made flooring in the market.

Cause Analysis

The product performance is good, the high-end building materials market is getting mature, which promotes the import of floor heating

The industry believes that there are three main reasons for the current import of floor heat. Wang Weidong, general manager of Nature Guangzhou, told reporters that, first of all, the consumer demand for high-end imported flooring in the market is objective. In recent years, the high-end building materials market in Guangzhou has gradually matured. In the field of imported building materials, ceramic tiles, coatings, and sanitary ware have long been generally accepted. Relatively speaking, the performance of the flooring industry in this area is still lagging behind, but the market demand is always existing. In the past two years, affected by the regulation of the property market and the objective economic environment, the entire home building materials industry can be said to have been declining. Under such circumstances, the consumption of the building materials market has gradually divided into two extremes, high-end consumers' spending power has begun to highlight. For a long time, imported products in various fields of consumption can be said to be synonymous with high-end, so many businesses have taken the opportunity to introduce the original imported floor into the market and provide more choices for high-end consumers.

Second, people's demands for health and environmental protection are getting higher and higher. Imported flooring is superior to domestic flooring in environmental protection, performance and other indicators.

According to Jin Zhenqiu, Chairman of Six Color Building Materials Co., Ltd., the imported floorboards currently on the Guangzhou market mostly come from Europe, and the quality of European flooring is also recognized as the best in the world. For example, the European environmental protection floor is implemented in the E 0 standard. The formaldehyde content per liter of wooden floor shall not exceed 0.9 milligrams. At present, China’s implementation standard is E 1 , which means that the formaldehyde content per liter of floor shall not exceed 1.5 milligrams. The formaldehyde content of European imported wood floor is basically below 0.5 mg, which is more in line with the concept of green environmental protection. In addition, the materials used in Europe's top imported flooring are very particular, including the strictest selection of the world's top brands such as paints and glues, such as the use of Tyre's environmental friendly rubber in Finland, and special environmental protection paints for floors to ensure overall environmental protection and safety. In terms of process and performance, the imported flooring is also superior to domestic flooring. For example, the Danish hacker who is a subsidiary of Nature is the global leader in geothermal solid wood flooring. It uses a unique hot-pressing and air-drying technology to make solid wood flooring in a heated condition. It can also remain stable without deformation. The wear-resistant rotation of solid wood flooring, imported floor can reach 2,000 rpm, while the national standard of domestic flooring is only 100 rpm, only some big brands can reach more than 500 rpm, which means that only in the wear index, two The difference is great.

In addition, the previous Anxin floor incident also caused the domestic floor brand to suffer credibility crisis, causing consumers to doubt the quality of domestic flooring. When the quality of domestic brands is questioned, consumers will naturally turn their attention to imported brands. Naturally, consumers who are allowed economic conditions tend to buy more quality imported wood products, which is also an important factor in the current import of floor heating. the reason.

feature of product

The imported floor pays more attention to the design and restores the appearance of the wood itself as much as possible

Wang Weidong, general manager of nature Guangzhou, said that the technology and technology of European flooring have now reached maturity, so the competition between brands is more of a design competition. In terms of appearance, the biggest difference between imported flooring and domestic flooring is that imported flooring tends to be naturally expressed and can accept defects in the wood itself, such as insect eyes, knots, cracks, color differences, etc. The best materials, therefore, are largely preserved as part of the design. Designers will design according to the color and characteristics of the wood itself, retain its natural texture, and the color is also biased towards elegant neutral colors. This kind of natural style flooring is more in line with the aesthetics of the Europeans, reducing the appearance of the wood itself as much as possible, embodying the characteristics of its love for nature and closeness to nature, and on the other hand it can also maximize the utilization of wood. From beginning to end, the concept of low-carbon and environmental protection is adopted. Of course, in the design innovation, there are also some designers try to break through the tradition, give the floor more expressions, design a new woven floor, serpentine floor, watery floor and so on.

Relatively speaking, at present, the domestic flooring still stays in the heavy-heavy woodgrain stage. The floorboards are heavily colored. Artificial wood carvings are used to emphasize the wood texture. Only the perfect part of the wood is selected, and defects such as wormholes and cracks are abandoned or colored. Everything is emphasized in the most perfect gesture.

This difference in consumption habits and aesthetic concepts also made some imported flooring agents worried. Wang Weidong said, “At present, domestic consumers have very high requirements for flooring, especially solid wood flooring. Don’t say bug eyes or cracks. Even the knots and chromatic aberrations are not allowed to appear. This is in contrast to the design of imported flooring habits to retain wood defects. Conversely, it is estimated that market acceptance will also require a process.” But he also showed that with the advancement of globalization and the integration of Chinese and Western cultures, it is believed that more consumers will agree with European environmental protection concepts and natural styles. The market for imported flooring is The future will be even wider.

Reminder

Not all imported floors are astronomical

In various consumer fields, imported products are often considered synonymous with high-end consumption. No matter what kind of home products, whether it is toilets, faucets, tiles or wallpaper, once you put on the original imported labels, you can often sell embarrassingly high prices. But for imported floors, this does not seem to be the case.

The price of imported flooring is mainly related to its category, the price of popularized laminate flooring is relatively moderate, and solid wood flooring is favored in the mid-to-high end, while pure solid wood flooring is a luxury product with astronomical prices. According to Wang Weidong, the general manager of Nature Guangzhou, the laminate flooring is a very popular and industrialized product in foreign countries. Due to mature technology, large-scale production and relatively low cost, the sales price in foreign countries is similar to that of similar domestic products. After entering China, prices will not be very high. For example, the natural agent of Germany's Kono laminate flooring is the world's largest sales floor, accounting for 80% of the European market sales, and its products in the Guangzhou market price is not too high, from 200 per square meter Diversification to more than 500 yuan, mainly based on the thickness of the floor and the number of surface wear rotation is different.

Three-layer solid wood flooring is the mainstream of European floor consumption. Because of its unique splicing method and stability, it can resist deformation caused by weather and other factors, and it is durable. Therefore, the requirements for materials and processes are very high, and the price is also high. It will be slightly higher, and the majority will be between 700 yuan and 2,000 yuan per square meter.

Due to the popularization of environmental protection concepts and emphasis on the protection of resources, consumers in Europe and the United States are not advocating the use of solid wood floors. Solid wood floors can be called luxury goods in Europe and the United States. Therefore, in the imported floor, the price of solid wood flooring is generally the highest, up to four or five thousand yuan per square meter.

Reporter's notes

Relying on "import" to attract consumers is not a long-term solution

In the current economic environment and market conditions, the emergence of imported floor heating is both unexpected and reasonable. Compared to the medium and low-end markets that have reached a certain degree of saturation, the high-end market in Guangzhou wood flooring industry has not been established. Most businesses use the market's rigid demand and promotional activities to seize the market. The terminal market also has a large room for upward extension. The consumption potential of high-end products is huge. In this case, the industry’s credibility crisis caused by Anxin floor has also been met. To seize the high-end market, it seems that in addition to imported brands, everyone has no choice.

Is the imported floor really a cure for the city? It is true that the increase in the sales of imported flooring is obvious, but it is only because the base is small and the natural growth is fast. From two stores to four stores, from 1,000 square meters to 2,000 square meters, it is 100% growth. With the influx of many international brands and the opening of a family store, the competition for imported flooring will soon be fierce. Although the cake in the high-end market is attractive, the share is always limited. It is not a long-term plan to attract consumers by relying solely on imported gimmicks.