in-depth analysis of construction materials and the building equipment markets including floor covering. The Catalina Report is a core industry resource that incorporates U.S. government and proprietary business statistics and includes analysis and forecasting for shipments, imports, exports, pricing trends, end-use markets, channels and more. Stuart works closely with leading flooring manufacturers and distributors to analyze sales trends, import/export opportunities, distribution channel strategies and plant cost structure. Stuart has been a speaker at leading trade shows including the annual Surfaces show in Las Vegas, Nevada and was a featured speaker at the 2007 China Wood Flooring Export Import Conference in Hangzhou, China. His experience as a research analyst began at Morton Research Corporation in 1969. He has continued in this genre for 30 years becoming one of the country's most prominent resources for the flooring and the greater home construction industries. Contact: Ph: 561-988-0853 shirschhorn@InformationGiant.com Read Stuart's overview of Catalina's July 2009 Floor Covering Industry Report |
- Read the Flooring the Consumer Interview by Christine Whittemore
Friday, September 18, 2009
Meet Stuart Hirschhorn - Floor Covering Institute
Series
This series started in June 2009 and gives me the opportunity to introduce
you to my talented and fellow consultants at the Floor Covering Institutewhich
has just announced the addition of Stuart Hirschhorn whom I interview in this
post. ---Christine Whitemore.
Stuart is director of research and founder of Catalina Research Inc.,
a name you surely recognize if you are associated with the floor
covering industry, read the trade press and devour research on the
industry.
C.B.: Stuart, tell me about yourself.
Stuart: With a degree in economics and marketing, I started at the
birth of the information business working for a company publishing
industry reports on a wide range of subjects. Over the decades, I
became an expert compiling, analyzing, and presenting industry data
and information to executives for actionable decision-making. In
1977, I started Specialists in Business Information (SBI) to offer
executives this expertise worldwide. SBI was sold to a division of
FIND/svp (now Guideline) that eventually became MarketResearch.
com. In 2001, Catalina Research was formed to concentrate on
publishing in-depth industry studies on the flooring, siding and
roofing, plumbing fixture, and kitchen cabinet and countertop
markets. A few years later, InformationGiant.com was established to
provide an ecommerce platform for these reports. Clients can
purchase on-shelf reports or they can sponsor a new report.
C.B.: How did you get started in the Flooring Industry?
Stuart: In the 1970s and the 1980s, I published separate reports on
wood flooring, ceramic tile, and resilient flooring. In the mid-1990s,
FloorCovering Weekly (FCW) approached me to provide a look at the
entire flooring industry for their “Annual Statistical Issue” [Note:
2009 issue requires Silverlight]. Their request was one of the early
attempts to quantify the entire flooring industry, and the FCW
“Annual Statistical Issue” quickly became the statistical standard for
the industry. At the same time, I began to publish an annual report
on the floor covering industry covering total and segment market
sales, the industry cost structure and company market shares, end-
use markets and consumer demographics, the floor coverings
distribution and installation businesses, and the factors driving U.S.
demand.
- A few years ago, Sandy Montero, the editor-in-chief of FCW,
suggested that Catalina Research provide an analysis of floor
covering industry trends on a timely basis. The result was the
Catalina Floor Coverings Quarterly Update. This timely newsletter
quickly became a valuable planning tool for the industry’s leading
manufactures and marketers.
- continued below...
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Stuart Hirschhorn
Biography
with the Floor Covering Institute. He founded Catalina Research to provide action-oriented executives with in-depth analyses of construction material and building equipment markets. The Catalina Reports reflects Stuart’s three plus decades of experience compiling, analyzing, and forecasting U.S. Government and proprietary data to evaluate an industry or market. Catalina Research has investigated all aspects of the floor coverings industry. The company’s U.S. Floor Coverings Industry report is used as the base of statistics for Floor Covering Weekly’s “Annual Statistical Issue”. Stuart has been supplying this data to Floor Covering Weekly since 1991. Catalina also publishes reports on Wood Flooring, Laminate Flooring, Ceramic Tile, Resilient Flooring and Stone Products. The National Wood Flooring Association is the sponsor of the Wood Flooring report. In addition, Catalina Research publishes the Floor Coverings Quarterly Update. All Catalina Reports cover product shipments, imports and exports, pricing trends, end-use markets, distribution channels, contractor data, plant operating ratios and profit margins, and the competitive environment. Stuart works closely with the leading worldwide floor coverings manufacturers and distributors in analyzing sales trends, import/export opportunities, distribution channel strategies, and plant cost structure. Stuart has been a speaker at leading trade shows including the annual Surfaces show in Las Vegas, Nevada. Stuart was also a featured speaker at the October 2007 China Wood Flooring Export/Import Conference in Hangzhou, China. Stuart also provided this type of data and information as president of Specialists in Business Information (SBI). SBI was founded in 1977 and sold to FIND/svp (now Guideline), a research-consulting company, in 1994. Stuart remained president of SBI until 2001. Stuart’s experience began in the formative years of the information industry, when he became a research analyst at Morton Research Corporation in 1969. Stuart’s background includes a bachelors degree in economics from Baruch College, New York, New York and a masters degree in Information Studies from C. W. Post, Long Island, New York. |
Read Christine Whittemore's interview with Stuart
at Flooring the Consumer
at Flooring the Consumer
Flooring the Consumer Interview Continued ---
As the Catalina Research reports and newsletter became widely used throughout the flooring industry, I was contacted to present the
findings of our research at industry gatherings. I have had the opportunity to present at Surfaces, the China Wood International Export &
Import Conference, the National Wood Flooring Association Convention, and the Resilient Floor Covering Institute Annual Meeting.
C.B.: What do you like most about flooring?
Stuart: I find the flooring industry fascinating to analyze since the competing material sectors - textile, wood, ceramic, vinyl, rubber, etc.-
each have their own set of sourcing economics and each provide the consumer with a unique set of advantages. You can see this play out at
Surfaces, where the different types of flooring are displayed side by side, sometimes even within the same company booth. It is also
interesting how competitors use technology, in what could be a commodity business, to provide consumers with higher end looks and longer
lasting and easier to install flooring. It has been very exciting to see how technological innovations have played out in the wood and
laminate flooring sectors over the past decade as manufactures offered glue-less installations and pre-finished products.
The past decade has also seen the globalization of the flooring market. When I first starting analyzing the flooring industry there were many
regional players. Regional players became national suppliers, and now national suppliers are forming global distribution. Today, flooring
materials are being sourced on one continent, manufactured in another, and sold in a third world market.
C.B.: What do you like least about flooring?
Stuart: As in many other markets, the selling of low-priced, low quality products hurts the reputation of flooring materials. When I was in
China, I was asked why Chinese wood and laminate flooring was considered to be low quality. The problem is the marketing strategy of
Chinese manufacturers is primarily based on selling on price. However, eventually prices are lowered enough for the customer to question
the quality of the product. I told the Chinese manufacturers they must develop brand recognition in order to convey the quality of the product
to the customer.
C.B.: Stuart, what five opportunities do you see in the flooring industry?
Stuart: Currently, there are two trends in the flooring industry that are providing selling opportunities. One is the growth in consumer
preference for lower priced flooring as consumer incomes suffer from the recession, and the other is the growth in export shipments as the
U.S. dollar weakened. As a result of these trends, manufacturers and marketers should:
1. Market to the large population cohort that was born since 1975. These are the first time homebuyers taking advantage of the $8,000 tax
credit and are the ones driving the recent increase in existing home sales.
2. Improve the quality of your lower end product lines to excite these younger buyers, who also have lower incomes than their baby boomer
parents.
3. Expand international marketing to take advantage of the growing emerging markets.
4. Develop a global brand to bring meaning to your product line to the millions of consumers world wide entering the middle class.
5. Prepare for the turnaround in U.S. floor coverings sales in the second half of 2010 due to the rise in existing home sales in recent months.
Some 10% of consumers purchasing a home today will be purchasing new flooring a year from now.
C.B.: What do you see being the greatest advantage that the Floor Covering Institute offers?
Stuart: The Floor Covering Institute provides the industry with a one-stop consulting group that can assist manufacturers and marketers
build their brands globally.
C.B.: Stuart, is there anything you'd like to add?
Stuart: Please visit our web site at www.InformationGiant.com to review the contents of the Catalina Reports and newsletter.
Thank you, Stuart!
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