At the invitation of Kaindl, the members of the Eplf (European panel laminate flooring) met near Salzburg for their annual general meeting on 5 and 6 June. Despite some people experiencing difficulties travelling through areas affected by flooding, over 70 members met at the idyllic Fuschlsee lake. Many exciting topics were discussed at the meeting of members, including the situation on the world market, the Wood Flooring Summit 2014 and international standardisation. The president of the association, Ludger Schindler, welcomed Çamsan Entegre Agaç (Hendek – Sakarya, Turkey), a manufacturer of Mdf board and laminate flooring, to Salzburg as a new ordinary member. The Eplf currently has 22 ordinary and 23 associate member companies. The ordinary members include the manufacturers of laminate flooring while the associate members are their suppliers.
One of the main topics of the meeting of members was the economic situation in the European laminate flooring industry. Positive developments in 2012 once again confirm how well laminate flooring is accepted by the general public. Compared with the same period in the previous year, the market for laminate flooring produced in Europe by member firms was relatively stable overall in the 1st quarter of 2013, although there were differences on the individual sales markets: figures for Asia and South America were up and Eastern Europe increased slightly too while North America and Western Europe remained stable at a relatively high level. Between 2007 and 2012, global sales of laminate flooring increased by 1.5 percent, but fell in Europe by 4.4 percent.
In 2012 for the first time, the ordinary Eplf members also provided sales figures by product thickness. Around 45 percent of all laminate flooring sales were products with a thickness of ≤7.5 mm, around 45 percent were 8-9 mm thick and the remaining 10 percent ≥10 mm. Products 8-9 mm thick are the biggest sellers in Eastern Europe and Turkey. In Western Europe, and Germany in particular, customers prefer ≤7.5 mm products.
