We will look at each collection in detail below, but first we need a brief understanding of Kronotex USA, their factory in Barnwell, SC and their relative strengths and weaknesses.
Kronotex USA opened the door of a new factory in 2005, Kronotex's U.S. laminate flooring manufacturing plant has an annual capacity to produce 200 million square feet of laminate flooring. The company currently runs three shifts, five days a week and has 82 factory employees and is located in Barnwell, South Carolina.
Kronotex USA has does have domestic manufacturing; however it is more an assembly plant that it is a fully integrated manufacturer of laminate flooring. The company itself identifies three strengths that set it apart from its competitors.
- The company has two laminate flooring lines. Similar to its European counterparts, the lines are highly automated and offer Kronotex the capability of producing both plank and tile in various sizes and thicknesses.
- Kronotex USA uses stringent quality control measures. The company not only uses cameras in the laminating and flooring lines, but also checks the tightness and flatness of joints every 10 to 20 minutes by assembling sample parts directly off the line.
- An environmentally sustainable company, Kronotex USA's initiatives include the use of dry adhesive in the laminating process for little to no emissions and the recycling and reusing of offal and other waste materials. The company sources panel from a number of suppliers certified for CARB 1 standards.
None of these strengths offer the Kronotex any particular USP (unique selling proposition). They appeared to over look the most important strength. In the first strength they comment that “The Company has two laminate flooring lines. Similar to its European counterparts, the lines are highly automated and offer Kronotex the capability of producing both plank and tile in various sizes and thicknesses”.
Presently Kronotex USA can only manufacturer 7mm and 8mm laminate flooring, the other thickness including tile look under the Formica brand all are imported from overseas. The company’s real strength is its flexibility; it can offer these 2 thicknesses and produce large volume runs in relatively quick time – comparatively to those in factories in Europe starting from scratch and then shipping. It is the time on the water where domestic manufacturing can save the most.
Three weaknesses also are apparent:
- The factory is not fully integrated – it is more a semi automated assembly line.
Not being fully vertically integrated plant puts pressure on Kronotex USA’s cost control. - To be considered a fully vertically integrated factory of laminate flooring you need to make you ‘core board’ of the laminate – the HDF panel at the same place you produce the laminate flooring. Presently Kronotex USA buy their panels of HDF from multiple sources and are subject to the whims and pricing policy of the HDF panel products market.
- Continually lower price point for 7mm & 8mm laminate flooring. Since the glueless laminate flooring was introduced in late 2001, the price point for laminate flooring has been continually falling. In 2002 7mm laminate flooring in major Home Centers cost approximately $3.00 a square foot this has fallen to $1.00 today. The 8mm has dropped at a similar pace. The market has simply evolved and headed towards a more identical look of hardwood flooring with a narrow plank look, embossed and four sided beveled.
- Not being able to produce the latest products and designs. The factory cannot make the Beveled and Narrow Plank laminate flooring, considered the peak of laminate flooring technology in house, they import this from overseas like their European counter parts.
The 7mm Yorkshire Collection from Kronotex USA.
Kronotex 7mm laminate flooring is 7mm laminate flooring is 7mm laminate flooring. It is really the workhorse of Kronotex USA’s manufacturing capacity 70% of product made in Barnwell, South Carolina is 7mm. This allows the factory to operate and run efficiently (or at least on paper show efficiency), either producing the product for Lowes as the Easy Lock Collection, White Box for bulk sales without branding and Kronotex Yorkshire. This allows for long runs of one color, for example Merbau and the longer the factory and laminate line can run one color, the more product it can make, with less downtime thus improving the factory efficiency figures.
Changing colors in the same line is still efficient, it is changing thicknesses of the flooring products or changing collections is what takes the time, you have to re-tool the machines. Downtime in a laminate factory is bad news as this reduces efficiency and pushes up the production cost per square foot. So for this 7mm line it is all about speed of production.
The name in order to not impact on the marketing efforts of improving the Kronotex Brand has been constantly changed.
It is presently called the Yorkshire Collection, but the Kronotex Company does not like the Yorkshire Collection name associated with; MyFloor, Smart Clic and a group of other names – but it is all the same product 7mm laminate flooring is 7mm laminate flooring is 7mm laminate flooring. Do not pay $1 a square foot more for the same flooring that came from the laminate flooring line, made by the same people.
The price of 7mm laminate flooring can range from $0.75SF to $2.99SF, you would be ‘crazy’ to pay almost $3 a square foot for a 7mm laminate flooring. All of the 7mm products, whether it is Pergo, Armstrong or even Tarkett a number of these names are also and can be made in the same Kronotex factory.
If you are buying laminate flooring and I mean standard laminate flooring, with no beveled edges and without narrow plank design, then just stick with 7mm. Where or whose brand is not important, what is important is the décor or color you choose. Then just try and find the best value 7mm, make sure it has a HDF core a 15 year warranty and glue-less locking system that has a legal patent and you are good to go, believe me 7mm laminate flooring is 7mm laminate flooring really is just 7mm laminate flooring.