VCT Report: Once ubiquitous in many commercial environments, VCT is regaining some of its lost marketshare – October 2024
By Jennifer Bardoner
Before LVT dominated the resilient category, VCT enjoyed a sizable share of the resilient market. Its low upfront cost and extreme long-term durability made it an especially popular choice for schools, healthcare settings and large-scale retail establishments. But with LVT’s promise of a quick and simple install and minimal maintenance requirements compared to VCT’s regular buffing and polishing regimen and routine stripping and waxing, not to mention LVT’s on-trend visuals versus the limited aesthetics deriving from VCT’s lack of a design layer, VCT lost its footing for several years, even in its historic strongholds. But as LVT now matures in the market, VCT is regaining some ground, industry experts agree.
LOSSES AND GAINS
Market Insights economist Santo Torcivia reports that VCT’s dollar share of the overall resilient market dwindled from 20% ten years ago to 4.5% last year. He recalls seeing the speckled square tiles used in a variety of settings, both residential and commercial, before LVT’s rise “killed” VCT. While the transition began roughly 20 years ago, Yon Hinkle, vice president of resilient product management for AHF, says LVT saw “unbelievable growth” over the last decade, and within the last five years, looselay began overtaking the kinds of high-traffic commercial environments where VCT was a material of choice.
“Since 2019, we believe the VCT market has shrunk by high single digits,” reports Jason McKee, senior director of resilient product management for Tarkett.
VCT isn’t the only material to lose ground in high-traffic commercial environments-epoxy and ceramic have also been impacted by the market’s acceptance of LVT, Hinkle says-but he believes that VCT is the primary beneficiary of the shift that is now occurring.
“Last year, we started to feel a change in the tide; we were starting to have customers come back to us who were not necessarily happy with the performance of LVT in high-use, heavy-traffic areas,” says Hinkle. “VCT does that extremely well, and it does that at an economical value that makes a lot of sense.”
Of all the products with extended lifecycles, VCT has the lowest upfront cost. Hinkle estimates it costs a third or a fourth of what ceramic and rubber do. And “in a down economy with high inflation, it is common for the market to seek lower-cost options in flooring and other materials,” says Torcivia. Additionally, VCT’s largely domestic supply base cuts out the additional costs inherent with imports, which have been in flux and trending higher since the pandemic, as well as related logistical supply chain issues. Though AHF and Tarkett are the only North American VCT producers, they supply the majority of the domestic market.
“We believe VCT is gaining back some marketshare due to customers coming back to VCT from LVT,” McKee says, noting that the company has made investments in its Mexico production facility. In 2021, Tarkett moved its VCT operations from Alabama to Mexico following its acquisition of Vinylasa.
As customers return to “something they already know and know works” for a variety of reasons, Hinkle notes that it isn’t a matter of poor wearability on the part of LVT that is contributing to the shift back to VCT. Rather, it’s just inherent drawbacks of the material in terms of gouge-and-scratch resistance. Even commercial wearlayers, designed to maintain the product’s visual under heavy foot traffic, can’t protect LVT’s soft body composition from the extreme wear experienced in many schools and hospitals, where dropped objects and rolling loads are common. Thanks to its homogeneous construction, VCT can better withstand these daily occurrences, (should they leave their mark), which can be buffed out indefinitely.
“This is not an LVT bashing, but, like any product, there are places where it makes more sense than others,” he explains. “We have customer types that would expect to change out their floors five years in, seven years in, ten years max. When you build or update a school or hospital, you’re not looking at a window of five to ten years. You are expecting the floor to perform and look great for 20 years. You’re not coming back to taxpayers and saying, ‘We need a redo.’”
Hinkle cites several school districts that have returned to VCT and notes that “Dallas, Texas’ school district had a whole plan to go LVT in all schools, but by the second school, they switched back to VCT.”
Sealed concrete has also been touted as a low-cost flooring option with minimal maintenance, leading to its specification in a variety of commercial environments.
“We’ve used VCT many times in the past, although mostly for projects with budget constraints, but many of those types of projects have transitioned to sealed concrete as a budget flooring option,” says Kevin Kennedy, CEO and co-founder of Cluck Design, an award-winning A&D firm in Charlotte, North Carolina.
But many are finding that the material doesn’t meet the promised performance, Hinkle says, reporting that several large-scale retailers have since returned to VCT.
“They tried to come in and say sealed concrete is cheaper to maintain, but it didn’t hold up; it scratched,” explains Torcivia, who believes concrete’s place in the market today may be inflated. “Half the production of retail building types are warehouses. You’re not going to put a finished floor in a warehouse, so concrete is where they go, and that balloons the numbers for sealed concrete.”
VALUE PROPOSITION
Despite its low upfront costs, VCT promises a veritable lifetime of performance with the right care. Whereas janitors can buff and polish VCT to keep it looking fresh and strip and wax it to bring it back to life when needed, the same cannot be said for LVT.
“Maintenance is a lot different than a redo, and the cost and implications of that are extremely different,” Hinkle points out. “To address gouges and scratches with LVT, you have to have somebody come in and pull out and replace the floor where damaged. It’s extremely costly and extremely disruptive, and they didn’t have a plan for that-LVT has been sold as a no-maintenance product.”
But LVT does address the aesthetic needs in the market as environments evolve to become more inviting. VCT has historically favored bland monochromatic visuals, which today feel sterile and outdated. In light of that, AHF has refreshed the colorways of its existing Armstrong Excelon lines and, under its AHF Contract brand, recently introduced two contemporary VCT lines, Iliad and Highlights, with smaller, swirling chip patterns.
“We’ve been purposeful about ‘if you’re carrying the Armstrong brand, you’re carrying it in your geography,’ but we have other customers with AHF-a significant number of customers-who were looking for VCT, so we developed a new line, a new look,” Hinkle says, noting recent capital improvements to the Kankakee, Illinois factory that bring its VCT capacity to 300+ million square feet.
The overall offering’s broad color palette offers designers flexibility, as well as a chance to incorporate dynamic colorways and designs that meet the needs of today’s environments. With color “not just a want but a need” as designers seek to make spaces more engaging, Hinkle says, AHF is working to reposition VCT, and its updated marketing materials help showcase the modern designs that can be achieved with its 100+ colors and customization options.
“VCT offers designers unlimited ability to create their spaces in the way they want to,” he says, noting AHF’s partnership with waterjet cutters to provide clients the option of custom designs, which are then shipped ready for install.
Citing a recent quick-service restaurant project, Cluck Design’s Kevin Kennedy says he appreciates the enhanced opportunities provided.
“I believe the graphics and colorways of VCT have improved and made for more versatile uses in projects that might not have considered VCT as an option previously,” he adds. “VCT gives us more options for bright colors. We would use it in another project in the right application.”
Before Armstrong’s bankruptcy, it was far and away the largest North American producer of VCT, and AHF is investing in that legacy. Since acquiring the bulk of Armstrong’s assets in 2022, AHF has invested over $1 million to increase VCT capacity at its Kankakee plant and develop the resultant new collections, while also improving the five related production lines’ reliability. Responsible for all of the brand’s VCT, as well as engineered and peel-and-stick tile, the Kankakee plant is the largest vinyl tile facility in the world, according to the firm.
LOOKING AHEAD
While Market Insights estimates that the overall flooring industry is down 5% to 10% this year, McKee says VCT is relatively flat compared to last year. Torcivia doesn’t foresee a huge uptick in the material’s marketshare, perhaps inching up from 4.5% to 5% of the resilient market. But with just two players in the game domestically, even moderate gains could be meaningful, and VCT will always have a place in the commercial market, especially in high-use and/or low-budget commercial projects, our sources agree.
“You still have cost pressures within hospitals, medical facilities, public schools, and VCT provides an alternative for them,” Torcivia notes. “The middle of the market seems to be being squeezed out by the high end and low end. More and more, society is becoming rich and poor.”
AHF is continuing to invest in its VCT offerings while working to expand their reach. “One of the things we’re trying to do with extending our reach to customers is expanding their thought process about how and where VCT can be used and what can be achieved with it,” says Hinkle. “Being the sole domestic producer can also be a drawback because you’re only one person talking about VCT in that way.”
Meanwhile, the company is looking for ways to improve upon the material’s maintenance requirements and exploring possibilities related to its sustainability profile. AHF is also focusing on its Armstrong Safety Zone slip-retardant VCT to make those options more attractive and better facilitate seamless installations featuring traditional VCT.
“It’s been a relative niche, and part of the reason is the visual is very limited,” Hinkle explains of the Safety Zone offering. “There is history as to why, but we believe we can expand on that significantly and provide our customers with design benefits that don’t get compromised when they want to have a slip-resistant part of the floor, maybe in the lobby, around water fountains or as you get into the cafeteria.”
Hinkle notes Armstrong’s Excelon static dissipative tile (STC) as another category that is growing for the company. Essentially a specialized form of VCT, it contains a copper strip to ground environments where electricity use is high, like data centers, IT offices and hospitals’ computer-server storage rooms.
“We’ve started to grow our inroads there-we realized we weren’t talking about it enough or focusing on it enough,” he says. “Right now, it’s up about 25% just because we’re talking about it. We have more work to do there. You can expect to hear more from us around this particular category.”
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