Rancho Cucamongo, Calif. — Based on its optimism for resumed growth in the wood flooring sector, Max Windsor’s dual themes for 2012 are Growth and Glamour.
“We started crossing our fingers about 18 months ago,” said Joannie Liu, CEO, “hoping the strong growth we were experiencing wasn’t a fluke, and it wasn’t.” Ms Liu expressed, “gratitude to our growing dealer base, which continued to support our line, even at the bottom of the economic cycle.”
“It’s pretty difficult to pinpoint the exact reasons for running counter to a cycle,” she said. “We’d like to think it was based on some brilliant management strokes, but in truth it happened because we stuck steadfastly to a very basic game plan; found the best retailers in every market and provided them with glamorous floors and extraordinary values.”
“Most observers are now taking a cautiously optimistic view of growth for 2012,” Liu observed. “Optimism is contagious, and thinking it will happen vastly improves the likelihood that it will. Seeing that this is the case, we decided to make a major product launch, confident that demand will be there to support it,” she said. As to Glamour, our second theme, it encompasses how products look and how they are perceived. We think wood flooring should be visually stimulating and tacitly convey a “buy me” message to consumers. This is more easily said than done, requiring a color and style sense which we are blessed with here at Max Windsor,” she concluded.
The company will introduce two major hardwood collections, Europa and Legends, and is expanding the color line of its popular Domain Laminate series. According to Khelin Young, general manager, “Europa is inspired by the glamorous visuals of classic European extra wide and extra long planks which are gaining a foothold in the U.S. market. But there is a drawback,” Young stated. “The leading products in this category require significantly more maintenance than floors with a typical polyurethane finish, seriously limiting their appeal to a broad audience,” stated Young.
“To overcome this drawback, we’ve given Europa a new finish which withstands many times the traffic, while retaining the natural soft matte finish and undulating grain movement of oil finishes. Europa will be warranted for both residential and commercial installations.”