Woodbury, N.Y.—Flooring companies that can legitimately say they offer a complete portfolio of soft and hard surface products are part of a very exclusive club. That club now counts Stanton Design as its newest member.
Long known for its beautifully styled broadloom carpet, Stanton Design has gradually transformed into a complete resource for flooring dealers—capable of offering ceramic tile or stone, WPC and laminate, carpet and rugs—and now engineered hardwood.
Prior to 2020, Stanton Design was strictly a soft surface company; for a time, it stayed that way even as some of its competitors made the move into hard surface.
But when Stanton Design decided to take the plunge in 2020, it did so with both feet.
Its full arsenal of products will be on display at Surfaces this week as the company unveils a new name, website and merchandising displays. For the first time in a long time, Stanton Design will bring its full complement of sales reps to Las Vegas so they can see for themselves what Stanton now has to offer.
After a challenging year for hard surface in 2024, Stanton Design is laying a completely new foundation this year, according to Jonathan Cohen, CEO. At the beginning of ’24, Stanton was primarily SPC. It is now in laminate, ceramic and will be debuting a new lineup for engineered hardwood. Of course, there will be carpet and rugs as well, with an emphasis on the Stanton brand.
Stanton Design will be offering its new hard surface products to dealers who are accustomed to their soft surface goods.
Cohen said he takes nothing for granted, adding, “We still must earn their business on the hard surface side. These retailers will give us an entry into hard surface but after that we have to earn it.”
New displays
One noticeable change with Stanton Design will be its new merchandising displays—Stanton Signature Studio and Stanton Artisan Studio. One close Stanton retailer who has seen the displays called them “a game-changer” and huge assists for RSAs.
“Organizing the products by look and construction versus their sub brands should allow for a streamlined shopping experience and less redundancy in Stanton’s offering across brands,” said Joel Schreier, owner of Home Carpet One in Chicago. “We love the white, clean look and expect it to elevate the appearance of our showroom.”
Stanton Design leaders say the merchandising systems will allow the company to consolidate its SKUs, thus providing a better strategy for product introductions. As Christine Zampaglione, senior director of marketing, said, “In the past we were feeding so many mouths. Today, we are evolving from a house of brands to a branded house to leverage our most coveted brand that customers understand: Stanton.”
Along with the merchandising vehicles, Stanton Design is also unveiling a new logo, color scheme, merchandising solution, website and marketing materials—all designed to convey a cohesive message of sophistication, creativity and modernity.
Signature Studio features a full wall configuration as well as island configuration, with the operative word being flexible. There will be discounts for dealers who achieve certain revenue milestones. In addition, the company is launching a preferred dealer program, Stanton Studio Showroom; the goal is to enhance the shopping experience and provide incremental sales opportunity for RSAs. “It’s all about simplifying the experience, allowing customers to explore a wide range of styles, textures and materials in a cohesive studio,” Zampaglione said.
Stanton Design’s goal is to have 250 full studios placed in the market by the by end of 2025. Home Carpet’s Schreier will be one of them. “Having the products organized by look (stripes, plaid, etc.) should make the experience simpler and more enjoyable,” he said. “It should also allow the RSAs to show a better mastery of their own showroom floor since they won’t need to be hunting for the board like they currently do.”
On the hard surface side, Stanton Design will be launching more than two-dozen SPC and laminate SKUs; each hard surface sample will include information on a rug that goes with it.
Its Natural Beauty Summit WPC collection, for example, will feature 12mm total thicknesses and formats of 10 x 82 and 12 x 86, along with a Uniclic locking system.
The company is entering the hardwood space with Stanton Fine Hardwood featuring 36 engineered hardwood SKUs, predominantly in white oak.
Stanton Design will also offer porcelain tile products as it rounds out its hard surface portfolio. “We are pretty impressed by Stanton’s progression into the hard surface world,” Schreier said. “Their emphasis on design coupled with building out a first-in-class team led by Jamann Stepp has put them ahead of others who have tried to bolt vinyl on to their offering.”
Home Carpet One has not featured laminate on its sales floor consistently for a long time, according to Schreier, adding that the few offerings it tried in the past did not gain sales traction. However, Schreier said that’s all changed now. “Within a week of putting Stanton’s new offering on the floor, we sold two rather sizable jobs,” he explained. “Stanton’s continuous drive to innovate and improve the b2b experience and relationship should be a North Star for others to emulate. What really makes them special is they are also able to maintain their long-standing focus on relationship building and accessibility.”
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