ALTRO says it’s been a driving force for innovation in resilient flooring and hygienic wall cladding over many decades.
As the latest development, Altro Oceanis, launches, we talk to some of the team responsible for creating this new nature-inspired safety floor solution for bathrooms to understand why fresh ideas and customer feedback play such an important part in what is described as the success of the company.
‘The bathroom is an intimate space, even in the most public building, so it’s important for us to consider the key principles of wellbeing in design,’ says Elmira Magomedova, creative designer at Altro and part of the design team behind Altro Oceanis.
‘Materials for bathrooms can be quite restrictive so it wasn’t only important to bring an innovation with the aesthetics for Altro Oceanis but also to give designers and specifiers the opportunity to combine those colours with other materials around them. We made sure that we had darker and lighter tones and also that we have looked at the previous trends as well as understanding our customers’ favourite palettes. That combined influence helped form Altro Oceanis.’
Biophilic designs and nature-inspired aesthetics are just one element of this new range. The team at Altro says it’s always looking for solutions to multifaceted problems, and safety underfoot in a bathroom environment is a key consideration.
Over to Stuart Reid, senior technologist at Altro: ‘Our starting point was the performance of our well-known bathroom products Altro Aquarius and Altro Pisces We wanted to keep that safety aspect of slip-resistance but look at how we incorporate high design with wood, stone or mineral effects in your bathroom.’
Altro products have to perform, so the team put this new product through its paces with independent external pendulum tests and ramp tests for slip resistance, of paramount importance in wet areas with contaminants.
But performance is more than just slip-resistance, as Stuart explains: ‘Another test we carry out is the water blush test. This is where we’ve put an upside-down cup of water on it for 48 hours and after that period we take it away. Vinyl floors can traditionally have a milky finish to them as some of the water permeates the product. These are some of the considerations that go into ensuring a new range will deliver the finished look that the customer is looking for.’
And understanding what the customer wants is absolutely pivotal to Altro’s product development and continued growth over the years. Ron Austin, customer engagement specialist at Altro, was part of the Altro Oceanis development team.
‘People have been asking for a more homely looking product that is suited to domestic environments, and also visually striking options for spas and other hard working commercial environments that also need to look good. People are interested in a stone-look, and also ask about timber, what they don’t want is anything with an institutional feel,’ says Ron. ‘We’re dealing with adaptation companies, with contractors, with distributors, with care groups, architects and designers. They’re all familiar with our range and all familiar with our wet room products, and they were asking for more, which we have now given them.’
When innovation is so embedded in company culture, it has to have come from the top, and that’s something reportedly very evident when you talk with Altro’s CEO Richard Kahn. ‘We had always had this vision, this concept, if you like, that we could produce high-design safety flooring,’ he says.
‘We saw that with Altro Illustra, and now with Altro Oceanis for bathroom environments. We invented the whole genre of safety flooring, we invented the genre of hygienic wall cladding, so innovation has always underpinned our whole sales and marketing strategy. I think our customers in our core sectors, whether it’s healthcare, education, hospitality, have been telling us that they’re looking for more, and it’s up to us to deliver that. These products, manufactured in our Dessau factory, combine the high design look with the safety flooring technology, providing flooring that is beautiful, safe, hygienic, easy to clean and easy to
install.’
www.altro.com/uk/products/altro-oceanis
