Business idea: laminate flooring

Profile stores selling a narrow range of goods are becoming very popular, and every year there are more and more of them. This is due to the fact that large shopping hypermarkets currently cover a large group of goods, in almost any product group, and in order to compete with them, it is necessary to offer people a wider assortment of a separate line of goods and improve service. In such stores you can get advice and discounts. In this article, we will talk about how to open a laminate store.

The essence of the business idea

Laminate is one of the types of flooring that has long earned the trust of buyers and is sold well in any hardware store. Why is this product so attractive? It has a modern look and at the same time its cost is acceptable for almost everyone, which cannot be said, for example, about the same parquet board.

The business of selling laminate is to open a store that will offer a significantly larger selection of this product than your competitors.

Before starting this business, study the competition and analyze how you can outperform similar stores. This can be a price, a service in the form of free delivery, a larger assortment, a wider range of manufacturers, and so on. You need to be clear about why the customer should choose your store.

Selection of premises and purchase of equipment

As with any type of business, the laminate trade depends a lot on the location of your store. It is advisable to consider rental options near markets, building stores, you need to look for where there will be a lot of potential buyers.

The size of the premises must be from 30 sq. ... Such an area is necessary in order to arrange all laminate samples on special stands. You will also need a warehouse if you plan to keep part of the assortment at home. There are some clients who do not want to wait two days for the delivery of the goods, they need it urgently. Therefore, some of the most popular options for goods must be stored in the warehouse.

Of the equipment, you will need to build special stands for demonstrating laminate flooring, they can even be made in several levels to save retail space.

Also, you will need to equip the seller's workplace. Provide him with mobile communications, a computer for placing orders in the database.

A great solution would be to create catalogs for laminate flooring from various manufacturers. They can often be obtained from manufacturers, but if necessary, you can do it yourself.

Assortment and search for suppliers

In the rating of the most popular and purchased coatings, high-quality laminate takes the second place, yielding only to ceramic floor tiles. Its relevance is easily explainable: the material has excellent operational and aesthetic properties, is easy to install and maintain, while being presented in different price segments.

How an expensive and high-quality laminate works

Starting your own business related to the production of expensive laminate is a profitable, but not easy to start and very risky business. A complex technological process requires considerable investments in the purchase of expensive equipment, however, the number of domestic companies engaged in the manufacture and sale of this coating is only growing every year.

A quality laminate consists of at least four layers:

• Transparent protective top.
• Decorative, essentially defining the external design and structure.
• Stabilizing or balance-paper.
• Main - HDF slabs.

Laminate is classified according to the type of joining of panels: with a lock according to the Lock or Click type, Uniclick, as well as the degree of wear resistance, which determines the service life of the coating - these are classes from 31 to 34.

Full cycle laminate production technology

The technological process for the production of an expensive and high-quality laminate includes all the stages to obtain the components listed above. You can open your business in the format of a full-cycle enterprise, that is, with an independent production of the main layer of the laminate. Full production cycle technology consists of two main stages:

• Production of a layer of HDF-boards: high-density fiberboards with the purchase of appropriate wood, its drying, processing, sawing. HDF boards can be purchased ready-made, but in this case, the cost of the building material produced increases significantly.
• Impregnation is the next step in laminate production. This includes the following operations: impregnation of layers with resins with additives;

• veneering (lamination);
• sawing;
• milling of locks; <
• packaging.

To open your own business - a private production of an expensive full-cycle laminate, you need to take into account that investments in equipment alone will amount to at least 300,000 USD. ...

Today, more and more often various mini-enterprises appear in our country. More and more people are looking for their happiness in starting their own business. In this article, we will look at a business idea for creating your own laminate flooring plant.

What is this production?

This is a rather complex process with several stages.

• Production of high-strength fiberboard.
• Impregnation of its upper layers.
• Covering the slab.
• Sawing with subsequent milling of panels.
• Packaging.

Materials for laminate production

The basis for the manufacture of these products is HDF (fiberboard) boards. The higher the density of the produced semi-finished product, the greater the mechanical strength and moisture resistance of the material. The minimum value of this parameter should be 800 kg / cu. The raw material for the production of the board is wood. It is cleaned of bark and chopped into chips using a special machine.

For the production of this finishing material, you will need to purchase equipment for the production of laminate, namely a technological line, which includes a double-sided profile machine, a packing machine, an automatic cleaning, a feeding / loading and stacking line. The production capacity of the mini-plant is approximately 15 million m 2 / year.

Business ROI

According to preliminary estimates, the profitability of such a business is quite high and can reach 30 percent. However, it is necessary to invest a lot in it, because even in order to purchase the simplest equipment for the production of laminate, it will take about 25 million rubles.

In addition, it will be necessary to add to this amount and the cost of renting a workshop, the area of ​​which should be at least 2.5 thousand m2, warehouses (heated and dry, because this material does not tolerate high humidity and drops temperature) for finished products and raw materials, as well as wages for workers (at least 25 people). In addition, it should be borne in mind that materials for the production of laminate flooring will also constitute a significant cost item.

Unfortunately, in our country the lack of high-quality domestic components hinders the development of the full cycle of this business. Therefore, fibreboards will have to be purchased abroad. If you plan to produce economy-class materials, then you can use the services of Russian manufacturers.

Product specifications

Laminate appeared on the flooring market more than 20 years ago and made a revolution, seriously squeezing linoleum, the leading one in terms of sales at that time. This success is based on easy installation, attractive price and incredible similarity to natural wood. Getting started with the choice, it is important to know what the laminate is made of, what technology and what quality the offered product is. This information will help not to make a mistake in making a decision, since floor coverings with different technical characteristics for domestic and commercial purposes are offered to buyers on the market. Despite the differences in design, they are united by the same type of device, which guarantees a long service life.

Laminate production began in Western Europe in the mid 80s of the XX century. Products from Germany, Belgium, Sweden are still in stable demand in the world market. Russian and Chinese companies keep up with the industry leaders, producing the most common collections at an affordable price.

Laminate board arrangement

Manufacturers do not hide what the laminate consists of, because this demonstrates to the buyer its reliability and practicality. It is no secret that some of the potential customers believe that they are being offered fiberboard with a decorative film. This is not true. The composition of the laminate is not a loose fibreboard, but a rigid board pressed under high pressure. The technology of its production is more complex, which improves the strength characteristics and moisture resistance.

The structure of the laminate consists of four layers:

• Protective - the topmost layer, the function of which is to protect the board from scratches, abrasive dust, static loads and abrasion. If you look at the structure of the laminate in section, this layer is a thin, durable film of acrylic or melamine resins. The thicker the film, the longer the finish layer will serve. In household collections, the thickness of the protective layer does not exceed 0.2 mm, in semi-commercial collections it is 0.2-0.4 mm, in commercial - more than 0.4 mm. The strength of the layer determines the class of the coating;
• Decorative - in the structure of the laminate, this is the thinnest layer made of durable paper with a pattern applied to its surface. The decorative coating faithfully imitates natural wood, popular varieties of ornamental stone, leather or artificially aged metal;
• Main (bearing) - is responsible for the basic characteristics of the laminate panel, such as overall thickness, strength, thermal insulation coefficient. It is a compressed HDF board of high rigidity, with a thickness of 6 to 12 mm. A lock of a complex configuration is cut into it, thanks to which installation becomes simple and efficient. The thickness of this layer is determined by the manufacturer depending on the area of ​​operation;
• Stabilizing - provides the panel with geometry stability and protects against negative influences. It is made of paraffin-impregnated paper or melamine film, some manufacturers use a thin protective plastic coating. The layer prevents moisture penetration, mildew, mold and steam. In some collections, it is supplemented with a substrate that provides better acoustic properties to the coating.

Having figured out what the laminate for the floor is made of, one can understand that its structure is distinguished by functionality and practicality. Each layer plays a specific role, therefore it consists of different materials that can easily cope with a specific task.

All laminate materials are safe for human health. This statement is typical for products from well-known manufacturers. What the laminate flooring for a number of suppliers from Southeast Asia is made of remains a mystery to buyers. When choosing, preference should be given to products of well-known brands. It is distinguished by high quality of the top protective layer and reliable locks. The characteristics of the base layer, which consists of the pressed board, are no less important. Only leading manufacturers use technology that meets stringent standards.

Production

High-tech laminate flooring is historically located in Europe: Belgium, Germany, Sweden, France. Several large factories for the production of the popular flooring have also been built in Russia. Reliable suppliers from China appear.

It is not easy to organize the production of laminate - a serious raw material base is required, an important factor of which is the proximity of suppliers of polymer resins. It is not enough to know what the laminate is made of. It requires professional staff, modern equipment, quality control laboratories, a design bureau and well-functioning logistics. Equipment for the production of laminate is selected depending on the technology being introduced. The specificity of the process plays an important role in the cost of products, the quality of the final result, and the additional range of the enterprise. Thus, companies that produce high-pressure laminate flooring also produce durable countertops for the furniture industry on their equipment.

Is laminate and its constituent substances harmful? Having understood what the laminate is made of, we can say that it is completely safe for human health. It is based on a high-density board, which is produced under high pressure. This allows the use of less formaldehyde, the emission of which is the main disadvantage of chipboard and other chip materials. The top layer of resin is polymerized and does not emit harmful substances. The melamine-impregnated paper used in the manufacture of laminate flooring is also safe.

How do the leading factories produce laminate? For gluing all four layers into a single whole, a powerful press is used and the components are heated to a temperature of 200 degrees Celsius. This does not have a negative impact on environmental performance, and the technological process does not allow the product to be classified as harmful.

Investments: from 10.2 million rubles

Payback: from 12 months

Laminate is very common among floor materials today, despite the fact that self-leveling floors and cork are produced. It is the laminate that lies in 60% of offices, apartments and other premises. Why has it not lost its importance in 20 years? The answer is simple: properties, long service life, practicality, appearance raise it against the background of other materials. Today we will analyze the organization of the production of laminate flooring.

Business Concept

Before taking on this business idea, you need to understand that you will "fit" into the organization of the whole plant. There will be large investments, large areas, large equipment. Only with the help of impressive components can you achieve good results in this niche.

The whole business scheme in simple language will sound like this: "We are looking for raw materials (wood), in several stages we produce laminate on our equipment, we sell finished goods either to retail chains, or we work directly with customers." It all sounds extremely simple, but at the very first stages of launch, you will begin to realize that this is far from the case. Since you will be establishing an entire manufacturing plant, a whole staff of employees will be involved in this scheme. They play the most important role in all business.

What is required for implementation?

Any large-scale business requires knowledge and skills. To enter the production of laminate, first of all, you need to know the manufacturing technology in the smallest detail. This is the foundation on which the choice of equipment, the choice of raw materials and its supplier will be based. The main stages of production:

• production of fiberboard;
• impregnation of the upper layers with special substances;
• joining 4 layers under the influence of presses and high temperatures;
• board cladding;
• board sawing;
• milling.

For each stage, you will need to find equipment, which costs a lot of money. In addition, you need to find a large room where all the equipment will be located, or you can resort to buying a woodworking plant. And one more important skill that you need to have at the start is the ability to manage people, organize their work, be able to motivate, stimulate them. From 15 employees will be under your care. These are the main points that should be a beacon when launching in this niche.