Since launching in Australia and New Zealand in 1963, Polyflor have proudly offered their customers a wide variety of flooring solutions to suit any need – aged care, retail, residential, healthcare, residential, you name it. Their range of products caters to those looking for superior quality but also to those after unique solutions like sustainable slip resistance, acoustic noise reduction, rubber and sports flooring.
Owned by James Halstead PLC, in London UK with Polyflor Ltd as its manufacturing sister company. They offer their customers the benefits of versatility, international quality and choice. Flooring Magazine recently sat down with Scott Foster, Managing Director APAC Region to discuss all things business.
- Polyflor has over 60 years of experience in the Australian market. What is the Polyflor story?
In 1992, Polyflor Ltd became directly involved in the Australian flooring market with the purchase and strengthening of the company responsible for the distribution of Polyflor in Australia. Since then, the business has been further strengthened, and now includes a sales presence in all states, and warehousing in Queensland, New South Wales, Western Australia, South Australia, and Victoria.
Up until today Polyflor Australia continues to strengthen its portfolio and strive for ethical and environmentally conscious practices.
- Polyflor specialises in vinyl flooring that is stylish yet durable and low maintenance available in sheet, planks and tiles. Walk us through the Polyflor product range.
Polyflor offer an extensive range of classic to eclectic styles with a variety of applications in residential and commercial environments. The one thing that remains the same across every range is Polyflor’s focus to bring quality vinyl that reaches all key criteria in functionality, design and longevity.
Polyflor’s sheet, plank and tile vinyl include a wide set of applications in various sectors. This includes education, health care, aged care, business offices, hospitality, retail and public leisure. Our specialised flooring includes our Static Control flooring, designed to eliminate electrostatic discharge, a requirement in many medical environments. Our Sports range, perfect for use in schools and sport centres were strong underfoot resistance and longevity are required. Our Acoustic range provides reduction of impact noise, as well as our Rubber flooring which provides durability and comfort in public buildings such as shopping centres, airports and hospitals.
- Your strength lies not only in the quality of the products that you manufacture, but in the full-rounded service offered to your customers. Explain the Polyflor service offering.
Polyflor’s success is our customer focus. We have an open line of conversation with our contractors, specifiers, and end users to ensure that we are achieving a smooth process from production to delivery. Polyflor is proud of our extensive range of flooring solutions suitable for any installation. Our dedicated personnel within the salesforce, technical departments and design team provide comprehensive customer support. Polyflor has developed an extensive network of agents, distributors, and wholly owned subsidiaries in a variety of markets to ensure premium quality in our products and sample availability.
- Polyflor strive to be an environmentally and economically sustainable business, recycling and reducing waste and being as carbon neutral as possible. Discuss the ways in which Polyflor is committed to minimising their environmental footprint.
The vision of our business model is fully encompassed by the Three Pillars of Sustainability, which focus on the synergy between Environment, Society (people) and Economics.
This is exemplified by utilising the Ecospecifier Global GreenTagCertTM scheme and EPD (Environmental Production Declaration). The use of these third parties gives consumers the confidence and legitimacy of Polyflor’s efforts in ethical and conscious manufacturing. In addition to this Polyflor has achieved maximum rating points in the Green Building Council Australia (GBCA) and New Zealand Green Building Council (NZGBC) Green Star rating tools. Polyflor Australia is also a signatory to The Vinyl Council of Australia Product Stewardship Program, ensuring that the entire life of vinyl products is reviewed and addressed to minimise environmental and safety issues within the vinyl industry.
Polyflor is involved in initiatives, such as RecoFloor operating across the UK and Resiloop of which it is both founding members. Recofloor is the industry’s leading vinyl recycling take-back scheme. Resiloop is an ARFA initiative to research and design an Australian resilient flooring product stewardship scheme. The scheme includes principles of contributing to a circular economy, climate contribution and behaviour change around waste management. It aims to increase the recycling of resilient flooring, building onshore recycling capacity and driving sector wide change.
- Looking ahead, what plans have you got for the future of Polyflor?
Polyflor is excited to announce our biggest giveaway to date spanning across nine months in collaboration with Tempur starting in October 2023. Additionally, Polyflor is looking forward to introducing ranges exclusive to Australia.
