During the NAFCD convention back in 2023, USMills provided attendees with a sneak peek of a new line of wall slats under the Workshop brand. Less than two years later, the initial rollout is in full swing, and the program is hitting the streets.
For USMills—producer of a range of innovative hard surface laminate, rigid core and hybrid products—the move into the wall slat segment was a natural progression for the company. As Karel Vercruyssen, president of the company, explained: “As a company, our vision has been about offering decorative products that not only add a lot of styling to the home but ones that are made out of sustainable materials. The products are made of high-density fiberboard (HDF), so it fits nicely with what we do with our laminates, and they’re high in wood content. This new Workshop line fits really well with our overall strategy.”
It was no accident that the eye-catching Workshop line was previewed before some of the industry’s largest floor covering wholesalers in attendance at NAFCD 2023. USMills, historically speaking, has been successful marketing its line of flooring products through this channel. “We’ve seen incredible acceptance in the traditional flooring distribution channel, which is where we are established and where we sell,” Vercruyssen said. “We’ve seen interest in the product growing every month in that channel. Not only did we adjust the Workshop collection from a product specification, styling and marketing standpoint, but we also made adjustments on the logistics distribution side so it would fit well with our regional flooring distributor partners. It has really come together very nicely.”
That initial attraction to the new Workshop line, according to USMills, was clearly based on the aesthetic appeal. It’s also a reflection of the popularity of the use of shiplap in today’s home remodeling trends. “We worked with our supplier based in Belgium to develop the existing eight SKUs in the line,” said Mayke Vercruyssen, who handles business development for the company. She cited eye-catching colors/styles such as: a pepper oak on pepper oak; pepper oak on white; pepper oak on black; castle oak on black; white on white; and black on black. “We also have two bronze designs—a black on bronze (pictured above) and a castle oak on bronze. The bronze backing is very new for us and also for the U.S. market. It’s something that we haven’t really seen elsewhere.”
While USMills leveraged its manufacturing expertise to develop and tweak the Workshop line, the company stressed the fact that the new wall products don’t necessarily provide an exact match to some of its flooring products. And that’s all by design. As Mayke Vercruyssen explained: “As of today, the existing Workshop collection does not coordinate with our flooring products.”
At the same time, it’s not something that’s necessarily out of the realm of possibility down the road. “We have a lot of design capabilities, so in the future that’s definitely something that we’ve talked about potentially doing,” Mayke Vercruyssen explained.
In fact, the design possibilities are virtually endless given the company’s ability to create custom looks. “The designs are done digitally, so that provides more options for the end user,” Karel Vercruyssen explained. “But first we have to continue to learn the market for wall paneling to make sure we fully understand the direction of the color trends on the walls. As flooring people, we might think we understand something and assume it’s going to be similar, but we’re already kind of seeing, especially on the commercial side, that color selection is a little different. But we do have the digital capability to do some custom design and colors, so it helps to have that flexibility.”
The seemingly endless design options available with Workshop also bode well for the potential of the product to be used across a variety of applications, according to USMills. “Based on all the requests that we’re getting for projects, we’re seeing that it’s very diverse,” Karel Vercruyssen said. “Workshop is most often used as an entire accent wall or an accent section on a wall. Often people will not do a full wall, but they’ll do half a wall. By the same token, we’re seeing people who want to use it around kitchen islands. We’re also seeing a good bit of requests coming out of hospitality. And we’ve done several projects for showrooms and retail spaces, and then there’s a lot of projects coming in where we get requests for information and samples designed for office spaces.”
The beauty of a product like this, according to USMills, is it’s only limited by the user’s creativity. As Mayke Vercruyssen noted: “Whether it’s a dental office, office space, a store, a restaurant or a home, there’s very little I haven’t seen. I think it very much aligns with today’s design trends, which are more natural, organic. And so I think a lot of spaces can actually benefit from this and I think it adds a lot to the space.”
Merchandising aids
USMills is supporting retail sales associates with samples sets and displays to help them present the product to the consumer. This, according to the company, is an essential step as wall panels might not be top of mind when the average consumer in the market for flooring walks into a store. To that end, the company has created a small display designed to sit on the countertop in a flooring store to serve as a talking point when discussing a project with the customer.
“The idea is hopefully to have it as an add-on to an existing project,” Karel Vercruyssen explained. “We realize most people are probably not going to walk in and say, ‘Hey, I’m looking for wall slats.’ We also realize a lot of retailers today do window coverings, kitchen cabinets or countertops. So it’s not unrealistic to think they might want to branch out into wall slats, and hopefully it’ll be a good fit.”
The initial Workshop rollout will be facilitated in conjunction with BPI, a top 20 distributor, as well as Eternity Flooring. The next phase, which will kick off over the course of the ensuing months, will entail USMills’ partners across the country until it has achieved full coverage of most of the country.
“The way we operate as a company in general is we don’t go too fast,” he added. “We’re a family business and a fairly young company, so we want to make sure that everything we do is gradual and strategic. But we definitely think this is a trend that’s going to be around for many years to come.”
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