Warm, soft and quiet

It is not possible to remain successful in the long term without constantly keeping an eye on the market and continuing to ask questions. This is why Egger carried out a Europe-wide customer survey in order to ascertain which characteristics today’s flooring must ideally have. The result: it must be warm, soft, quiet and durable. Egger’s reaction to these findings was to develop a new type of floor covering. This new flooring category is made up of a combination of high density fibreboard (HDF) with newly developed high density cork layers. “This new cork-plus technology allows us to offer our customers a type of flooring that fully complies with the desired qualities and is nearly as durable as laminate,” explains Stefan Pletzer, head of sales and marketing at Egger Retail. The challenge was to combine the positive qualities of cork with the functionality of laminate. “The high level of compression of the printed cork layers allows us to achieve the stability that is decisive for our quality perception,” says Pletzer. The density of the special cork used for the “Laneo” range is around four times higher than natural cork. This makes it especially hard-wearing throughout its entire long lifetime, according to Pletzer,. For the Laneo range Egger makes exclusive use of newly developed wood-grain finishes which are geared to the latest and most popular looks and trends. The new product carries the FSC seal and an application has already been made for the Blue Angel quality mark. To begin with Egger is distributing the new line exclusively through wholesale partners, but the intention is to sell it in DIY stores later on as well. Megafloor XXL is another new product launched by Egger at the Bau trade fair in Munich. This is a laminate floor-board in a special long format. The background to the development of this product is that the individual functional areas of the home are tending to become more and more integrated nowadays. In concrete terms this means that the kitchen, eating area and living room are in many cases being planned as one unit of open spaces. “In the modernisation projects that are currently experiencing a boom, it is obvious that more and more dividing walls are being removed to make rooms larger,” says Pletzer. “And it is clear that bigger planks tend to be required for larger rooms.” Produced in the classic format of approx. 1.30 m in length, the floor-boards can be slotted together flush to make a panel that looks to be almost 2.60 m…