Interfloor’s market-leading brand names, Tredaire, Duralay and Gripperrods, have been satisfying British consumers’ flooring needs for more than six decades. These well known, and highly trusted brands, have the highest consumer brand awareness in the underlay and flooring accessories market. Indeed a recent survey has shown that both Tredaire and Duralay have a consumer awareness level that’s four times higher than the next most popular brand.
Duralay first began manufacturing felt underlays in 1944, going on to develop the world’s first crumb rubber underlay (Super Duralay) in 1950, before entering the sponge
rubber market in 1983. Tredaire launched its first sponge rubber underlay, Tredaire Willow Green, in 1950 and its first PU underlays, the Tredaire Seventh Heaven range, in 2000. The Gripperrods brand was acquired in 1998 and Stikatak ten years later, so that the business could offer a comprehensive, and unique, range of flooring accessories including carpet gripper, floor edgings, adhesives, tapes and tools.
Today Interfloor offers a range of more than 60 branded Tredaire and Duralay underlays and more than 800 Gripperrods and Stikatak flooring accessories. Together they provide the ultimate one stop shop for retailers and flooring contractors who need a reliable solution to meet the demanding needs of their customers.
Steve Woodhead, Interfloor marketing director says, “When it comes to underlay we’ve learned that consumers have a range of needs that can’t be satisfied by a small number of products. Our goal has always been to give the retailer a range of options that meet all possible requirements and budgets. Consumers need varying levels of comfort, they require durability and resilience. They need underlay that can be double stuck, used with natural floorcoverings, border work, wood and laminate floors and even work with underfloor heating. Not only that, but they want to buy brands they know and trust. Only Tredaire and Duralay rubber underlays can offer all of this – which explains their enduring popularity.”
In the last year there has been a resurgence in demand for rubber underlay, especially the luxury sponge rubber and hard wearing crumb rubber underlays, which offer peerless levels of performance. Steve Woodhead says, “An increasing number of retailers have, I think, become increasingly frustrated with some poor quality PU underlays. Many of these offer indifferent and inconsistent quality and are very difficult to differentiate from one another and to up-sell. Consequently we began to notice a trend towards high performance rubber underlays that began in 2009.”
Sales volumes of premium rubber underlays are up significantly. Tredaire Colours Red sales are up 53%, Duralay Silentfloor Gold, the leading wood and laminate underlay, are up 13%; and Duralay Kensington Deluxe, the latest crumb rubber / felt combination underlay, is up a staggering 64%! Not bad for a sector recovering from the recession.
The renewed success of rubber underlay is not just a UK phenomenon. Interfloor has a highly successful export division led by Tony Capon, international sales director. Selling to more than 70 countries in Europe, South America, the Middle East and Asia, Interfloor’s high quality rubber underlays are in increasing demand. Tony Capon says, “Interfloor rubber underlays are the preferred choice of many of the world’s leading hotel groups including Hilton, Marriott, Sheraton, Intercontinental, Hyatt and Jumeirah. They will only choose the very best and we’re delighted that they choose Interfloor. This also includes the latest major five star hotel in Dubai, The Atlantis, with around 1,500 rooms, which has more than 100,000 square metres of Interfloor rubber underlay.”
In the UK Interfloor has recently launched the largest underlay marketing campaign in years. The Campaign for Real Underlay, featuring “Mr. Rubber”, is highlighting the unique benefits, in consumer preference, comfort, durability and sellability, which rubber offers. Through trade press advertising in CFR and other publications, direct mail and a new web site (www.realunderlay.com) Interfloor is successfully getting the message across. The campaign has been extended to provide new sales tools to help retailers and wholesalers sell rubber underlay. These include new Tredaire and Duralay point of sale packs and the new Rubber Underlay Collection, a sales folder that explains the benefits of rubber and features 20 swatches of the leading products.
“We have been amazed at the response from the trade, which is way above our expectations. In the last two months we’ve seen a real surge in demand for rubber underlay from existing and new customers. Indeed there have been an unprecedented number of new customers opening accounts with Interfloor – in February we had the largest number since our records began! Many have said to us that the campaign is helping them to sell more, and better, underlay and that we’re the only manufacturer that can help them to do that”, says Steve Woodhead.
