Here, in the first of what will be a series of columns for CFJ, Simon Darbyshire talks about some of the key issues and challenges which are impacting the UK timber flooring market.
‘IN much of this piece I’m going to be talking about challenges and difficulties faced by the industry currently, whether it’s material sourcing, energy costs, ‘cost of living’ crisis, Covid-19 recovery or any of the other ‘local difficulties’ that are afflicting us currently. However, before we get into that, I do want to make it clear my overall perception of the market is positive.
It’s true the Construction Products Association’s winter forecasts predicted a recession in 2023, with construction output expected to fall by 4.7% during the year and to show a marginal growth of 0.6% in 2024. The CPA expected private housing newbuild, the largest construction sector, and private housing repair, maintenance, and improvement (rm&i), the third largest sector, to be the worst affected sectors this year.
The overall position for the year would benefit from the fact that infrastructure would continue to grow, albeit at a slower rate than in the past few years owing to cost inflation and budgetary constraints.
More positively, several major housebuilders have reported improvements during January, although they expect the market to remain unstable and volatile for some months. The Institute of Directors in its most recent analysis says the economy is teetering on the brink of recession, but points to positives, such as very low unemployment and inflation expected to have peaked and to be on a downward trajectory before falling below the Bank of England target by spring 2024.
The international situation has certainly hit the wooden flooring market hard. Significant amounts of raw material such as veneers came from Russia and Ukraine, and there are also finished product factories there, which are no longer able to send product our way.
This has led the industry generally to become more focussed on to Western Europe where possible in terms of sourcing product.
That general squeeze on availability has led to increased raw material costs for all of us. Unfortunately, availability pressures also coincided with a dramatic increase in shipping and transportation costs during last year, making for a very tough Q2 and Q3 2022.
As container prices have since stabilised, that has contributed to an increase in the amount of Far Eastern product arriving back on the European market, especially from China and Vietnam. The situation is further exaggerated by the fact that, unlike some other product groups, there’s no anti-dumping tariff levied on engineered wood flooring imports, irrespective of their country of origin or the prices at which they’re being offered.
While the market might have concerns about the quality of product brought in via this route and also its sustainability, a key issue for premium suppliers such as ourselves is not to be dragged downwards on price. Manufacturers of technically innovative western-manufactured products, such as hardened wood flooring, are always going to struggle to compete on price with far eastern imports.
Partly then this is about manufacturers convincing the market – specifiers and end-users – that they need to ‘stick with the quality and innovate’. There’s a reason hardened wood flooring products may cost more than cheaper engineered products – in terms of design, quality, durability and longevity plus of course product innovation, such as the Woodura patented surface technology and 5G Dry from Bjelin’s sister company Välinge.
These are particularly important considerations at a time when a significant proportion of the market growth we are seeing with our Bjelin Hardened Wood flooring brand is coming from high end developments. These are discerning customers who are looking for the very best aesthetics and installation qualities from their wooden floors.
It’s very important for the future of the sector that the quality message is heard loud and clear by the whole market. Then they’ll keep supporting premium producers, technical innovators and manufacturers of the best possible hardened wood flooring solutions for customers.
For these customers sustainability is an issue which is constantly rising up the policy agenda. They are looking for reassurances with regard to the sourcing of timber flooring products, such as FSC Chain of Custody information, evidence regarding the manufacturing processes used and other information relating to the embodied carbon within their products. These are aspects about which manufacturers must now be in a position to reassure their customers, and indeed to be able to prove their credentials.
One advantage of hardened wood floors is that they use timber much more efficiently. In fact, normally only a tenth of the material used in engineered wood flooring is required for a hardened wood floor.
This is technology to improve sustainability and it can only happen if a company is making a sufficient margin to be able to invest in research & development and push the boundaries of what is considered possible in wooden flooring manufacturing.
www.valingeflooring.com
Who is Simon Darbyshire?
Simon is managing director of Valinge Innovation UK, known for the Bjelin hardened wood flooring brand. He has more than 30 years’ international management experience in the wood-based panels sector, including 14 years as managing director of the UK subsidiary of the multinational manufacturing corporation Pfleiderer, specialising in branded wood-based panels. This is his first column for CFJ.
‘IN much of this piece I’m going to be talking about challenges and difficulties faced by the industry currently, whether it’s material sourcing, energy costs, ‘cost of living’ crisis, Covid-19 recovery or any of the other ‘local difficulties’ that are afflicting us currently. However, before we get into that, I do want to make it clear my overall perception of the market is positive.
It’s true the Construction Products Association’s winter forecasts predicted a recession in 2023, with construction output expected to fall by 4.7% during the year and to show a marginal growth of 0.6% in 2024. The CPA expected private housing newbuild, the largest construction sector, and private housing repair, maintenance, and improvement (rm&i), the third largest sector, to be the worst affected sectors this year.
The overall position for the year would benefit from the fact that infrastructure would continue to grow, albeit at a slower rate than in the past few years owing to cost inflation and budgetary constraints.
More positively, several major housebuilders have reported improvements during January, although they expect the market to remain unstable and volatile for some months. The Institute of Directors in its most recent analysis says the economy is teetering on the brink of recession, but points to positives, such as very low unemployment and inflation expected to have peaked and to be on a downward trajectory before falling below the Bank of England target by spring 2024.
The international situation has certainly hit the wooden flooring market hard. Significant amounts of raw material such as veneers came from Russia and Ukraine, and there are also finished product factories there, which are no longer able to send product our way.
This has led the industry generally to become more focussed on to Western Europe where possible in terms of sourcing product.
That general squeeze on availability has led to increased raw material costs for all of us. Unfortunately, availability pressures also coincided with a dramatic increase in shipping and transportation costs during last year, making for a very tough Q2 and Q3 2022.
As container prices have since stabilised, that has contributed to an increase in the amount of Far Eastern product arriving back on the European market, especially from China and Vietnam. The situation is further exaggerated by the fact that, unlike some other product groups, there’s no anti-dumping tariff levied on engineered wood flooring imports, irrespective of their country of origin or the prices at which they’re being offered.
While the market might have concerns about the quality of product brought in via this route and also its sustainability, a key issue for premium suppliers such as ourselves is not to be dragged downwards on price. Manufacturers of technically innovative western-manufactured products, such as hardened wood flooring, are always going to struggle to compete on price with far eastern imports.
Partly then this is about manufacturers convincing the market – specifiers and end-users – that they need to ‘stick with the quality and innovate’. There’s a reason hardened wood flooring products may cost more than cheaper engineered products – in terms of design, quality, durability and longevity plus of course product innovation, such as the Woodura patented surface technology and 5G Dry from Bjelin’s sister company Välinge.
These are particularly important considerations at a time when a significant proportion of the market growth we are seeing with our Bjelin Hardened Wood flooring brand is coming from high end developments. These are discerning customers who are looking for the very best aesthetics and installation qualities from their wooden floors.
It’s very important for the future of the sector that the quality message is heard loud and clear by the whole market. Then they’ll keep supporting premium producers, technical innovators and manufacturers of the best possible hardened wood flooring solutions for customers.
For these customers sustainability is an issue which is constantly rising up the policy agenda. They are looking for reassurances with regard to the sourcing of timber flooring products, such as FSC Chain of Custody information, evidence regarding the manufacturing processes used and other information relating to the embodied carbon within their products. These are aspects about which manufacturers must now be in a position to reassure their customers, and indeed to be able to prove their credentials.
One advantage of hardened wood floors is that they use timber much more efficiently. In fact, normally only a tenth of the material used in engineered wood flooring is required for a hardened wood floor.
This is technology to improve sustainability and it can only happen if a company is making a sufficient margin to be able to invest in research & development and push the boundaries of what is considered possible in wooden flooring manufacturing.
www.valingeflooring.com
Who is Simon Darbyshire?
Simon is managing director of Valinge Innovation UK, known for the Bjelin hardened wood flooring brand. He has more than 30 years’ international management experience in the wood-based panels sector, including 14 years as managing director of the UK subsidiary of the multinational manufacturing corporation Pfleiderer, specialising in branded wood-based panels. This is his first column for CFJ.
