Jeff Lorberbaum’s flooring career spans more than 50 years, the last half as CEO of Mohawk Industries. He stepped down from that role on Sept. 30 after 25 years at the helm of the flooring industry’s largest manufacturer. Throughout these five decades, Lorberbaum has presided over acquisitions and innovations that have positioned Mohawk as an industry leader and influencer for decades to come.
Lorberbaum has demonstrated a leadership approach that can best be described as strategic, aggressive regarding growth, operationally disciplined and constantly focused on product differentiation and serving the customer. He is the prototypical business builder. At the same time, he transformed Mohawk from a carpet company to an all-encompassing flooring supplier.
Lorberbaum emphasized Mohawk’s commitment to enhancing style and design across all product categories. He stresses the importance of introducing new design capabilities that were not yet available in the market, noting Mohawk’s leadership position. His philosophy: better design yields differentiation, which results in a better product mix—which in turn yields higher value and better margins.
In this FCNews exclusive, Lorberbaum talks about the importance of style and design and how it has contributed to Mohawk’s leadership position.
During your time in the industry, design has changed a great deal. Before we discuss innovations and products, what does good design mean to you personally?
When my career began in the mid-1970s, burnt orange shag carpet and overstuffed windowpane plaid furniture were the height of home fashion. Now, we look at photos from that era and question what people were thinking. Home décor is driven by trends, and you have to separate passing fads from timeless design, which has proper proportion, balance and visual interest. You’ve heard people say, “I like how that looks, but I can’t explain why”—that’s how good design works. The rules of design create a sense of harmony that pleases the eye. We apply that to Mohawk’s product launches, which focus on elevating color and design, so our collections are clearly differentiated on the sales floor. We want our products to inspire and delight the consumer, which translates into greater sales for our retail partners.
You mentioned trends versus timelessness. Is there a way to be both trendy and timeless?
There definitely is, and we’re delivering those products now to help retailers increase sales and profitability with designs and features that promote upselling. Wood floors are the epitome of timeless decor, and our waterproof laminate, resilient and hybrid collections offer homeowners a practical, more durable alternative with visuals indistinguishable from natural wood. The longer and wider planks are ideal for elevating the presence of a room, and these collections represent an unbeatable value for homeowners who want luxury that fits their budget. Stone is another timeless design element, and our porcelain collections replicate the look and feel of marble, travertine and more to create spa-like bathrooms, chic kitchens and unforgettable foyers.
Over the past few years, we’ve introduced many beautiful patterned and sculptured carpet collections that add visual and textural depth to every room. Some of these styles are inspired by classic designs while others are more organic and reflect how our advanced technology creates appealing new designs. All of these options feel fresh and sophisticated today, and they’ll still look great in homes years from now.
For our retail partners, these unique collections provide a way to promote upscale design options at popular price points. Currently, affluent consumers are investing more in home remodeling, so it’s essential for retailers to have products that will appeal to that buying segment. Our distinctive, premium offering ensures retailers can provide discerning consumers with many elegant options for their homes.
The Karastan brand has always had a reputation for design leadership. How does design define that brand today?
Along with Godfrey Hirst, Karastan is an exclusive brand that represents our most luxurious offerings. Karastan’s heritage dates to 1928, and the brand continues to be the most widely recognized and respected in the industry because of its exceptional design, quality and performance. Consumers who invest in Karastan pay a premium for the exceptional color and design that distinguishes the collections in the marketplace. We’ve carefully protected the brand’s legacy and maintained a limited distribution strategy to ensure that its exclusivity remains a meaningful benefit to our retailer partners. Our ultra-luxury Karastan Black Label collection elevated the brand to a new level. These designs interpret classic patterns in exciting ways with meticulous craftsmanship, contemporary colors and sophisticated textures. In addition to showcasing these exceptional carpet collections, our Karastan Black Label merchandising highlights how they can be paired with complementary Karastan hard surface products. Our Karastan product extensions reflect the same uncompromising standards of the brand while bringing extraordinary design into other product categories.
With carpet, SmartStrand was a major innovation when you launched it in 2005. At that time, the story centered around performance and renewable resources. Does the consumer sacrifice anything in style and design with Triexta versus, say, nylon?
SmartStrand was a gamechanger from the moment we introduced it, and there’s still nothing like it in the market. Triexta is the only new residential carpet fiber approved by the Federal Trade Commission in the past 70 years, which makes SmartStrand a truly generational breakthrough. It has inherent, permanent stain and soil resistance that never washes or wears off, and the renewable, bio-based content remains unique in the industry. Since SmartStrand was launched, we’ve gained a better understanding of all we can accomplish with the fiber from a product engineering perspective. We’ve created collections with enhanced visuals, unsurpassed softness and superior performance. This year, we’ve added another major breakthrough by adding Pur-Ease to SmartStrand Color Wall collections, which represent the world’s only Allergy and Asthma Friendly treated carpet. Our groundbreaking Pur- Ease technology dramatically expands the carpet market by making these products a great option for every household.
More generally, how important is it today to have wide color lines in every carpet collection?
We ensure the colors consumers want are in every collection so retail associates have the choices that will close a sale. Each Mohawk product has a fashionable array of colors to suit its design and price point. We analyze sales patterns and home fashion trends to balance changing consumer preferences with the core colors people desire each year. This process ensures a consumer has choices that satisfy her design needs without presenting so many options that she feels overwhelmed. We also support our retail partners with sophisticated merchandising systems that present color choices and product features so consumers can confidently select their best option.
What have been some of the best technologies/innovations that you have put in place over the years to enhance styling and design? In hard surfaces, I would assume the Signature and GenuEdge technologies are among the most important. Talk about what that has done for the company and, more importantly, for dealers.
We’re proud to lead the industry in innovation because it provides an opportunity for our retail partners to transition from selling price to selling value. Consumers have consistently demonstrated that they’ll pay more for a product that offers greater beauty, performance and cleanability. Each year, Apple introduces another iPhone model with new features that they use to justify a higher price point, and people continue to trade in for the new models. We have to embrace that mindset of selling leading-edge innovation to grow margins. Every innovation story represents an opportunity for upselling if the benefits to the consumer are emphasized.
You mentioned Signature Technology and GenuEdge. Those two features elevate our waterproof hard surface collections by creating visuals so realistic that even Mother Nature would be impressed. These two unique features support a premium value proposition across our collections. The superior appearance of our hard surface collections with Signature Technology visuals and GenuEdge bevels gives retail sales associates a great story about how consumers can obtain the look of natural hardwood at a tremendous value.
Switching to ceramic, how has Reveal Imaging changed the game? Would you say that’s been the greatest innovation from a style and design standpoint in ceramic? You could say it allows a consumer to have an authentic wood look in her kitchen if she doesn’t want real wood, correct?
Reveal Imaging was a transformational breakthrough in ceramic tile. For decades, U.S. ceramic tile choices consisted mostly of single-color squares in various sizes. Reveal Imaging completely changed how people thought about using ceramic tile in residential and commercial spaces. Our Italian ceramic business pioneered this technology in 2009 with tile that looked like wood planks, and we continued to invest in it to improve the quality and variety of our collections. Beyond wood visuals, Reveal Imaging allowed homeowners to install porcelain tile that replicated the appearance of marble, granite, slate, travertine and polished concrete, all while offering the durability and waterproof properties of porcelain.
Today, we’re building upon the legacy of Reveal Imaging by further enhancing visuals with state-of-the-art 3D printing, which creates ridges, knots or veining that can be felt to the touch. We additionally embellish the surface with a proprietary technology that creates greater dimension with varying gloss and matte finishes. As light hits the raised points and shadows fall into the recessed areas, the tiles display incredible depth and nuanced color, which has enhanced the level of realism in our collections. We’re applying this printing process across collections from mosaics to large slabs to create dramatic design options for any space.
As great as Reveal Imaging was, it was only a starting point for the remarkable work that we’re now delivering in ceramic tile. In any product category, you can never rest on successful past innovation. You have to continue pushing for the next breakthrough. That’s the only way to deliver the best products imaginable. Our 2027 collections will debut in December at Edge Summit in Dallas, and I know our Edge retail partners will be excited to see the new designs that will influence flooring trends in the year ahead.
The post Mohawk’s Lorberbaum discusses style, design appeared first on Floor Covering News.
Mohawk’s Lorberbaum discusses style, design Posted First on https://fcnews.net
No comments:
Post a Comment