We asked Jutta Wiebe and Christoph Wellekötter, who both work from the Parador headquarters in Coesfeld, Germany, where a Trend Center for professionals has also been set up and where a new logistics centre is now under construction. The latter should become operational in the spring of next year. It will measure 30,000 m², with a total capacity of up to 30,000 pallets.

We did not approach Parador as an interlocutor lightly. This company covers a lot of different floor coverings and can speak for virtually the entire range on the market. Here we find floors such as (engineered) parquet, laminate, vinyl and the special, environmentally friendly design floor Modular ONE, complemented by skirting boards and wall and ceiling coverings. This range is complemented by an extensive range of surface finishes, colours, formats, designs and textures for every interior, both commercial and residential.

Big in all categories
"If you ask us, part of the answer to why Parador XL and XXL floors are so successful simply lies in what we have considered our mission from the very beginning. Here, we believe that every interior should inspire the person in a room and that the basis of a beautiful room starts with the floor. It is something that extra-large floorboards emphatically tie in with," explains Jutta Wiebe, who has been working at Parador since 2017, as Team Lead Public Relations and Corporate Communications.

"A big advantage for customers is that they can come to us in all categories, it goes beyond mere laminate and composite wood, but also includes vinyl and a modular offer. Thereby we can handle serious lengths, up to 2.20 metres, and widths between 230 and 250 mm," picks up Christoph Wellekötter, who has worked for Parador for 18 years and is Head of Product Management there. "We launched vinyl flooring back in 2012, followed this year by the first launch of XXL vinyl with click. This came after our major innovation in 2018, when we unpacked Modular ONE, which immediately housed XXL planks from the earliest launch. Those XXL shelves are still one of our bestsellers."

We think it would be interesting to dwell a little further on those Modular ONE floors. What makes the large formats do so well just in this range?
"First of all, then, you have to look at their construction," Christoph continues. "These are PVC- and plasticiser-free floors, a serious asset in these very environmentally sensitive times. They are also low-maintenance and water-resistant, and they are almost indistinguishable from real wood in terms of look and feel. They are also offered in a low installation height, which makes them very renovation-friendly."

Naturalness at its best
Perhaps an even more important reason for the success of extra-long should simply be sought in the timber world. Therein, long planks are standard. Since floor coverings such as laminate or plastic very often seek their decors from the natural example, it is logical that they are floating along on this success.

"Quite right," Christoph picks up. "As a result, when we look at designer floor coverings, we always try to make them look as real as possible. The design has to be perfect, with a perfect relief at the top. In addition, the size has to match that of real wood. We are proud that we managed to make a floor covering made of laminated wood look so lifelike, especially Modular ONE manages perfectly to make rooms look large and luxurious, without you realising that it is not actually real wood."

"There is also a very great ease of installation thanks to to our click systems," Jutta continues. "An installer can install several metres, with a perfect click because of our Safe-Lock PRO click connection. Conveniently, a single person can handle the installation, even with long and wide boards. The long boards belong at the top of all the grades we offer. We achieve a very high wear class for our laminate (wear class AC5) and extremely high water resistance with a class 33. Our top products achieve up to 100 hours of water resistance according to the European standard ISO 4760, which requires you to achieve 'only' 24 hours."

Developments
A good conversation cannot go without sounding out about new developments. We learn that a major launch is planned next year and that this will mainly involve large boards....
"We are updating the range with new designs," Christoph Wellekötter confirms. "In addition, oak remains, but we are bringing it in new colours and gradations, such as rustic. The trend of really cool grey is somehow over, colours are becoming warmer, and we are responding to that. Even in the natural, we see a shift, now towards caramel, honey,..."

"It involves an update in all our ranges, working with embossing in register without exception," Jutta Wiebe concludes. "Striking in this respect will be how little repetition there still is in the long floorboards. Parador invested in larger printing cylinders to avoid image repetition and can now go up to 2 metres in standard printing."

"Modular ONE only works in high resolution and blind tests showed that even experts could not distinguish between real wood and printing. Our boards really feel like wood thanks to special surface technology with a matt gloss level. The latter is achieved by electrobeam surface treatment. No UV for us, electron beams provide a much better result!"