The Washington Inquirer EditorSwedish manufacturer of wood and vinyl floors Kährs is continuing to “work” the wood flooring industry with a series of innovations and flooring solutions for homes in Georgia.
As an exclusive importer of Swedish flooring materials, Kährs Georgia brings its expertise accumulated over 160 years of existence and new ideas on how to improve floors, make them more attractive, stronger, easier to install, and more sustainable.
Customers in Georgia also expressed their gratitude toward the company when it named Kährs Georgia as their favorite “flooring materials” brand in the country. In addition to customers, experts from different fields who participated in the Golden Brand survey also recognized Kährs Georgia in this nomination, giving the company its first Golden Brand award.
Kährs has been supplying products to more than 70 countries, including Georgia, since 2019. Today Kährs floors can be found in homes, offices, shops, hotels, concert halls, theaters and sports arenas across the country, and the company is proud of its strong presence on the Georgian market.
Deputy Director of Kährs Georgia Elene Gvaramadze reviewed with Golden Brand the success behind the company on the local market.
Q. Let’s talk about the Golden Brand awards, as you are a newcomer. How has the company gained so much trust and love from customers in such a short period of time?
A. Since the opening of Kährs Georgia, our company has been focused on offering customers the highest quality products and services, which has led to customer trust. We were also actively involved in promoting the brand and wanted to become known to a wider audience. These factors helped a lot to win us the Golden Brand award this year, which we are very thankful for.
Q. As the award is given to the companies based on the successful activities of the previous year, could you please review 2022 and share some highlights?
A. 2022 was fruitful for our company as the demand for our products increased. I would also like to mention that last year we worked with hotels, sports halls and laboratories, so we moved beyond residential installations.
We saw demand from designers, architects and construction companies. So awareness, number of products, and loyal customers have all increased.
Q. Can you remember what the first product that Kährs Georgai brought to our market was and how many products are in the company’s portfolio as of today?
A. The first product we introduced was a three-strip parquet. Currently we offer our customers up to 400 models of two-strip and three-strip parquet.
We also have an innovative product, vinyl, with a wide selection and continuously updated collections.
We also offer customers ecologically clean materials from the Italian floor brand Tover, such as floor and vinyl glue and primer.
We also have parquet care products, and flooring and renovation services.
Q. Laminate is very popular in our market because, unlike wood parquet, it is more affordable. Kährs parquets are quite expensive for mass consumption. How popular are Kährs parquets in Georgia, and please share the sales figures.
A. Our strategy is offering our customers an ecologically clean and high-quality product. Of course, the price of wood parquet is different from laminate flooring and is more expensive, however the price between our quality laminate and budget parquet is small.
Also there is vinyl, which competes with laminate both in terms of price and quality as a budget product with high quality.
In general, Kährs’ portfolio is very diverse as we offer both budget and premium line products. Our products are affordable for the middle and high segments.
As for sales statistics, last year Kährs Georgia saw an 80% increase compared to 2021. In the past years customers chose more budget models, but in 2022 this trend changed and we mostly work on premium class models.
The most in-demand in 2022-2023 is spruce flooring, of which we have a wide variety.
Q. Please share some future plans with our readers.
A. We have received different collections of new vinyls. We have also received a floor covering that is used in cliniles, which does not have much competition in the Georgian market.
We also went for a quartz vinyl floor and a floor with zero-sound insulation that can be used in any type of commercial space, be it a clinic, laboratory, airport or school.
We have also obtained a hypoallergenic wall coating and added new cleaning products to our portfolio.
Finally, we are thinking about opening a new branch in Georgia. Currently, Kährs Georgia is represented by only one store which is located at 2 Vazha-Pshavela in Tbilisi.
