The natural feeling of a wooden floor

FLOOR ELEGANCE: Each year about 100 million m² of floor are installed in Europe alone. A quarter of this total is in solid quality wood, while the rest are laminated floors with a wood veneer. Junckers, a market leader in solid floors, wants to get into the laminated floor market without sacrificing on quality

For more than 70 years, solid wood floors from Junckers Industrier A/S in Denmark have been the preferred choice for combining classical elegance with optimal properties. 100 million square metres tells its own story about the popularity of Junckers floors, in buildings including the White House in Washington, the Pompidou Centre in Paris and the Bolshoy Theatre in Moscow – plus a vast number of private homes all over the world. Now the company is speeding up development. In the future, Junckers must not just be the preferred flooring for stylish residences and grandiose buildings. Junckers must be the flooring which is chosen when only the best is good enough.

     “Junckers’ solid wood flooring is continually acknowledged as the best brand in the world,” says the company’s managing director Lars Hermansen. “In the future that also has to be seen on our bottom line. You will see us becoming far more aggressive, and listening much better to the market.”

Turbocharged product development
The strident new tone from the old company also carries the message that product development is being accelerated. Since the establishment of Junckers in 1930, the company philosophy has been to produce solid wood floors on a sustainable foundation. For many years this resulted in a number of innovative production methods of which Junckers alone was the master. The company concentrated on production in preference to being guided by the market. Externally the product range was accompanied by the slogan ’Take It or Leave It’. Internally this resulted in stiff administrative procedures which were not always the most rational. This was part of the reason why, 18 months ago, Junckers went through a painful suspension of payments which led to a restructuring of the company.

     “Today we are far better prepared to compete,” says Lars Hermansen, who was employed to turn the company’s fortunes around with new visions and ideas. He believes that over the next couple of years, Junckers will be back in the lead regarding quality floors.

Listening to customer needs
“There is an enormous market potential for quality wood floors,” says Hermansen. “In Europe alone 100 million square metres are installed annually. But almost threequarters of these floors are laminated floors, comprising a 2-4 mm surface layer of wood veneer glued to chipboard or MDF. So far we have only produced solid floors which in general will always be slightly more expensive because they are made of the same wood all the way through. Now that we are listening more to customers, it is natural that we will also start offering laminated floors. Only with the difference that they must match our own quality requirements. But in principle we will offer what customers want.” The product range has already been expanded with a number of trendy new floors. In the USA where Junckers has a strong position on the west coast, a new laminated floor in bog oak was a success from the start. American customers have really taken to the floor with its characteristic dark interplay of colours. Black Oak, as they call it, originates from oak trunks which have lain for several centuries in a bog. Today the wood is rare, so Junckers has developed a special process which gives parquet strips a glow of mystery at the same time as keeping the oak’s strength and natural properties. Junckers has also launched a number of new floors in light Nordic colours.

Sports floors
“One of the areas where we continue to have a very strong position is in sports floors, which have special requirements for strength, friction and elasticity,” says Hermansen. “The safety of people doing sports is close to our hearts. Our specially designed subconstructions are one of our best competition parameters regardless of whether it is a fixed or floating floor. Since entire floor concepts are involved, we also take into consideration that the sports centre is often used for other activities than sport such as concerts, theatre or large meetings.”

     “Sports floors account for about 25% of our production and so are an important part of the company’s turnover,” continues Lars Hermansen. “And although aesthetic expression naturally plays a part here, the focus is rather more on functionality, strength, ball reflection and cushioning. And increasingly how the floors can suit the needs of TV broadcasts from large sports events. We have perfected the line markings for different sports and the exploitation of floors for advertising space.” It is however the natural wood and the feeling of quality that it adds to a room that inspires the new Junckers to claim its place among the world’s leading floor manufacturers in the future.

     “The unique feeling of walking on a quality floor made from nature’s own product, where no two pieces of wood are identical, cannot be compared with anything else. It is that feeling we must go out and tell the world that Junckers can supply.”