Luxury vinyl flooring is currently the most popular product in hard surface flooring. The increasing popularity comes from the fact that vinyl flooring is highly affordable at all grades and the convenience that it has over simple installation, minimal maintenance, and waterproof features. However, with increasing product homogeneity, problems, market competition, and consumer preference conditions are ever more challenging than before. Major flooring brands have already started on creating unique ABC vinyl flooring collections with exclusive designs and low-repetition features. The trend for multi-cylinder design sets is seen as a strategic approach to create a difference in the market.
Here we explain what an ABC vinyl flooring collection is and how these multi-cylinder design sets support brands to differentiate their vinyl flooring products from competitors.
What is ABC Vinyl Flooring?
The ABC vinyl flooring refers to the number of pattern designs used for building up the collection. The number of letters indicates how many designing cylinders are used for the collection. ABC, for instance, has 3 sets of designing cylinders, which allows for up to 12 or 15 unique planks to be produced with full length. ABCD, on the other hand, will have 4 sets of design cylinders, proving up to 20 unique vinyl planks.
Why Do Design Cylinders Matter?
One of the main reasons why luxury vinyl flooring is considered cheap is because the number of plank repetitions is considerably high. Unlike natural hardwood flooring, where each plank and cutting has complete unique grains and patterns. An unbeatable feature that only exists in natural woods. However, with vinyl flooring planks, the story is different. As a synthetic flooring, the appearance of an LVT or SPC is reliant on the printed decorative film that is laminated between the layers. It is this printed decor film that creates almost endless possibilities in luxury vinyl flooring designing.
However, the designing limitation lays in the manufacturing process, the rotogravure printing, which uses printing cylinders to press each color onto a substrate (i.e., the decor film). For the luxury vinyl flooring industry, the cylinders are common with 1m to 1.3m width, and the circumferences are common in 1.2 meter, 1.5 meter, or 1.8 meter long depending on the design size requirements. The effective surface design dimensions in this instance can cover approximately up to 2.3 square meter without any repetitions, that is, with the biggest printing cylinders that are used for the LVT industry.
In practice, due to the cost of developing these rotogravure printing cylinders, most of the existing “Ready to Make” products in the market only offer a single set of cylinder. This greatly limited the design versatility in conventional vinyl flooring products. There is a bit of the lemon’s problem where low pricing LVT products are driving away more premium LVT products that invested in low repetition design cylinders.
However, in recent times, more flooring brands and flooring distributors have come to awareness that price competition strategies aren’t exactly the best approach in the flooring markets. Exclusive designs with low repetitions, sometimes offering up to 16 unique planks, are being leveraged by leading brands and proven to have market success in both retailer and building projects.
Creating Low Repetition Vinyl Flooring Collections with ABC Design Cylinders
For flooring brands and flooring wholesalers, having a vinyl flooring product that significantly differentiates from the market can create a difference. By establishing unique LVT flooring collections, flooring businesses will have more market impact in mid- and premium vinyl flooring markets.
How to Create Unique Low Repetition Vinyl Flooring Collections
In the conventional business model, flooring businesses have to invest in developing these rotogravure printing design cylinders. Each set of design cylinders will roughly cost $30,000 USD, and these design cylinders are made exclusive to the brand that made the investments. This can be a huge investment for flooring businesses, especially when they have not already had enough volume scales in the market. In practice, major flooring brands will ask their suppliers to invest in these developments. In return, the brand will provide scalable quantity purchases with the suppliers.
Here at Sreelance Flooring, we provide a few Ready to Make vinyl flooring collections with ABC design sets. This means even with smaller quantities, flooring businesses can create unique and premium vinyl flooring collections without the burden of investing.
Design Highlights
- Design Codes: 450 / 451 / 452
- Design Frame: 984 x 1890mm
- Surface Texture: Deep Embossed
- Style: Wood Grain
- Planks: Best for 4 plank split
Customisable Specifications
- Type of Flooring: LVT / SPC / WPC / HDF / L-SPC
- Base Thickness: Available in range of 2 mm up to 9 mm
- Wear Layer Thickness: Available in 0.2mm / 0.3mm / 0.5mm / 0.55mm / 0.7mm
- UV Coating: Standard Coating / Anti-bacteria Coating / AluO3 Coating / Crosslink Coating / RTS 1 Coating
- Underlayer Material: EVA / IXPE / Cork, thickness between 1 mm and 2 mm
- Installation: Dryback / Loose Lay / Click
- Plank Edge: Square Edge / Mircro Bevel / Standard Bevel / Painted Bevel / Pressed Bevel / Irregular Bevel
Order Luxury Vinyl Flooring Now!
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Frequently Asked Questions
Why is getting low-repetition vinyl flooring a market trend?
The resilient vinyl flooring industry has been developing rapidly over the past 3 decades. With increasing competition among brands and importers, vinyl floorings, whether it’s LVT, SPC, or WPC, are getting too homogeneous in terms of product specifications and prices. Therefore, for flooring retailers, it is essential to try to differentiate with newer designs and colors. Getting collections of low-repetition design is an effective way to differentiate in the market, as it provides a rarer and more realistic appearance in flooring.
If low-repetition designs are effective, why haven’t all brands and retailers started to sell?
Because more sets of printing cylinders must be made in order to print various matching designs, low-repetition designs require a larger investment. The market is now seeing many ABC or ABCD designs, especially with leading brands such as Coretec, Karndean, and Mohawk. However, for smaller flooring importers and distributors, they are still considering too much about getting competitive prices. However, with increasing competition, this will also drive their margin down as price competition worsens.
Is EIR (Embossing In Register) available with Low Repetition Vinyl Floorings?
Yes, they are! EIR embossing can be developed with the low repetition designs. The EIR will support the vinyl flooring product and collections to have a more luxurious look and get a more premium product position and spots.
Where can I import low repetition vinyl floorings?
Not every vinyl flooring manufacturer invests in low-repetition design collections. However, here at Sreelance, we work with some of the best flooring manufacturers to provide “Ready To Launch” low repetition designs as well as custom selected low repetition designs. Sreelance will help you to connect with the most suitable suppliers according to your product needs.