The Floor Covering Institute Blog

Whether you’re operating a ceramic tile, stone, flooring or widget business it’s crucial to have a business plan in place.  The business plan, in essence, acknowledges your current position and identifies where you want to end up.  Articulating what you want to achieve and how you intend to achieve it are important steps that lead to a successful business.


A sailor who doesn't know what direction he is traveling will have trouble discerning between a good wind and an ill wind...

Just as the sailor has to steer his ship as he navigates the seas to his destination, business owners have to steer their companies through daily challenges and decisions.  Making the right decisions and course adjustments are much easier if you have a plan and a destination in mind.  Business planning is not a one- time process. Like the sailor who is constantly adjusting his course, businesses must also adjust course.

The current global and domestic economy has certainly presented challenges to many bus…

If you are interested in learning about the growing flooring demand in Asia, the differences in channels (EU vs. US vs. Asia), environmental and legal issues affecting the industry (including an update on the ITC investigation), the growing pressure, opportunities and influence of sustainable building, or why marketing the environmental advantages of wood flooring is more important now than ever–then consider attending the Wood Flooring Forum (WFF) on March 21, 2011 in Shanghai. The forum is geared towards industry executives, buyers and marketers and takes place one day before Domotex asia/ Chinafloor opens in Shanghai.

The international Wood Flooring Forum (WFF)  presenting “The Forces of Change in the Wood Flooring Industry”– an overview of opportunities, obstacles and innovations in major flooring markets and the driving influence of sustainability. 
The Forum. A shortened formal general session makes room for a panel discussion by major wood flooring manufacturers including Arms…

This is an update to my last post about the anti –dumping allegations surrounding engineered hardwood flooring “Anti-dumping allegations will profoundly affect engineered flooring market regardless of investigation outcome.”

A group of distributors, retailers and importers has formed a third party in the ant-idumping and investigation of engineered wood flooring from China.  They are the Alliance for Free Choice and Jobs in Flooring and directly oppose the mission of the Coalition for American Hardwood Parity (CAHP) which is leading the cause against China.  The leaders of the recently formed group, AFCFJ, state its function is to educate themselves and the industry about real world conditions which will point to the fact that duties on imported products should not be increased.

So now here are the players in the bid for the engineered wood flooring market in America:

•    The action against China comes from the CAHP, lead by giants Mannington and Shaw. They claim that Chinese manuf…