Qs could stop it going cheap on the net simply by carefully selecting of whom they sell to, if company's are buying in bulk then selling cheap on net just stop selling to them easy
Aside from Quick Step, one of the best laminates I've fitted was Distinctives offering for a few short years Adam. It had texture and went together extremely well, I still have it fitted in the showroom and office. Real shame they stopped it as it was a far better product for margin than QS.
hate laminate but I've got a neighbour who's laminate looks great, dark wood with grain, looks like real wood but he can't remember what it's called and I haven't got it in my samples, dying to know what it is
Great news jambo, although shame they dropped it. I used to sell loads of kaindl when I was in wholesale but last years biggest increase across every item was lvt.
Laminate is old hat now ! More people ripping it up than putting n down ! LVT is the now & the future !
like Balterio, kaindl do some nice designs and obviously QS but the rest of them you can keep although Matt mentioned one a while back can't remember the name but supposedly was a nice one with decent fitting system
We are not doing much laminate these days as LVT is the new fake wood with the added bonus of bespoke designs. Engineered/solid wood sales remain the same as always Yes internet wholesale selling is squeezing us even more unfortunately. The amount of times we have to compete against a internet price to find its either fictitious or its not exactly what it seems. And then when the client finds out the real price its too expensive I am fed up with the reps responses regarding any queries to prices via the internet as they keep saying they are trying to reign it in, but I just think that's debatable, the real solution is simple and that is stop supplying them. We looked at setting up a flooring wholesale website a while back but found it easier and better margins on white goods (may still do that for my retirement plan yet) and easier delivery and warranties with suppliers. In a nutshell the risk with flooring wholesale would have kept me up at night as you have got to do some serious volume to make it worth which in the current climate is risky business.
Its probably the same rep that i get lame excuses from,I agree it drives me mad that we have to pay for the stands from a well known brand of laminate and let them use our shop to show the goods, then we still have to get the price from our distributor, who sell to anybody, people come in the shop all the time just to see a larger section and then order online , they even supply the sheds , will not be renewing the contract next time paid £900 and I don't even own the stand !! It's a good job I don't push the domestic and mostly do solids if I do.
Was told because they sell to distributors they can only advise what it should be sold at. They recon its against European rules on price fixing, load of rubbish if you ask me, If they don't have a shop and don't have trained fitters then you shouldn't be allowed to sell it,
no problem with trained fitters selling without a shop but they shouldn't be able to buy at the same price as those with, everyone will need to charge similar money or reduce profit margins massively to compete would help eliminate those who are untrained (cowboys) when most pro's are charging around the same they'll stick out like a sore thumb.
