Interview with Secretary-General of Flooring Association —— Suggestions for Chinese Flooring Enterprises to Cope with the Market

With the rapid development of the flooring industry in recent years, consumption concepts for flooring products keep evolving. How to respond to new changes in market demand has become a major challenge for flooring enterprises. Meanwhile, while expanding market share, how to leverage their own strengths, clarify market positioning and upgrade technical capacity has emerged as another tough issue. On this topic, our reporter interviewed Ms. Sun Xiaoyun, Secretary-General of the Flooring Material Branch of China Building Materials Federation.

Reporter: Faced with diverse market demands, how can enterprises give full play to their own advantages?

Sun Xiaoyun: It is extremely difficult for enterprises to keep up with the rapid changes in the flooring market. Under such circumstances, enterprises must take the initiative to adapt to market and customer needs. Some domestic enterprises lack initiative and adaptability, with no effective strategies to respond to market shifts. As a result, they are forced to adopt a wait-and-see attitude, linger in the market with difficulty, or even withdraw entirely.

By contrast, many other enterprises perform well, and I believe the core lies in self-positioning. In recent years, I have seen many enterprises expand the market based on their actual conditions instead of pursuing blind expansion. They gain a firm foothold in the industry through specialization and differentiation.

At present, the flooring industry serves a wide range of sectors including industry, commerce, electronics, hospitals, automobile manufacturing, tobacco factories and more. The product portfolio is also extensive, covering cement-based self-leveling flooring materials, resin-based flooring materials, cement-based wear-resistant materials, penetrating liquid hardeners, elastic flooring materials and other categories.

If an enterprise attempts to cover all categories, it will have to invest massive human, material and financial resources in research, development and production. Even multinational companies can hardly achieve full coverage, let alone most domestic flooring enterprises, which are generally small in scale with relatively weak financial and technical strength.

Such enterprises should focus on refining, strengthening and expanding one single product or one specific application field. They should uphold the philosophy of specialized expertise and dedicated service. Professionalism is the foundation and guarantee; service is the driving force for further growth. Without professionalism, an enterprise cannot take root; without quality service, it cannot achieve leapfrog development. Enterprises must fully recognize the importance of professionalism and service.

Reporter: In terms of marketing, how should small and medium-sized domestic flooring enterprises position themselves?

Sun Xiaoyun: To achieve growth, enterprises should pursue benefits from high value-added markets and target the mid-to-high-end segment to seize market initiative. This is not an empty slogan; it requires a complete set of development plans and targeted measures to cope with current market conditions.

In the initial stage, enterprises commonly face insufficient strength, low brand influence and numerous practical operational difficulties. However, with accurate positioning, proper strategies and effective resource integration, enterprises can concentrate resources on the production and sales of their competitive products. After years of efforts, whether taking the path of large-scale production or achieving breakout growth in a segmented application field, enterprises can deliver impressive performance, build brand advantages, and gain access to the mid-to-high-end market.

Although the project volume in segmented mid-to-high-end markets is not huge, the added value is considerable. Successful cases in this regard are now commonplace in the industry, making the exploration of high value-added markets a practical and achievable goal rather than a mere slogan.

Reporter: When enterprises lack independent R&D capability, how can they upgrade their technical strength rapidly?

Sun Xiaoyun: Introduction, learning, digestion and absorption. This is the most efficient way for domestic enterprises to enhance technical capacity.

At present, flooring material production technologies, construction processes and on-site testing methods are already well-established in developed countries. The fastest development path is to introduce and learn advanced technologies from Europe, the United States, Japan and other developed regions. On this basis, enterprises can conduct digestion and innovation, and develop internationally competitive products and construction processes that are better suited to the Chinese market.