Parketti Romanoff Oy, headquartered in Piispankylä in Vantaa Finland, specialises in demanding parquet solutions for public spaces and private homes, delivered as full service packages. Currently, the family business, established in 1979, is making parquet floors for the Helsinki Music Center and is taking the first steps in its cooperation with OR Group.
The reference list of the company is impressive. You can see Romanoff’s work in the president’s official residence Mäntyniemi, the Finnish National Theatre, Nokia’s headquarters, the School of Economics in Aalto University, as well as in Finnish embassies around the world.
Tommi Romanoff succeeded his father as CEO of the company, and after running the business for nearly 15 years, he has seen parquet trends come and go. At the moment, Finnish private consumers are interested in surfaces in different shades of white.
“Coloured products have entered the market during the past few years and expanded the selection enormously. People are now interested in white surfaces that are white-treated, white-washed, oiled or varnished, with oak or ash as the base material. Of dark surfaces, brown and gray are now trendy. Wide white, brown and gray planks also interest customers,” he notes.
Another new product group is so called rustic vintage grades, i.e. wooden floors in line with styles of past decades demonstrating some signs of wear and large knotholes filled with putty. Even bevelled planks are now popular.
“Earlier, people looked for floors that were as even, shiny and easy-care as possible. Now they want natural solutions that look and feel comfortable.”
Oiled wooden floors are a hit in the Nordic countries
In comparison to other Nordic nations, Finns have been big fans of laminate floors.
“In Denmark, for instance, up to 70% of floors are oiled. I’d say that in Finland, the respective figure is 5%. Oiled floor materials constitute 15% of our selection. I wish that Finns would be inspired by oiled floors. In other Nordic countries, an oiled wooden floor is not considered difficult to care for. An oiled floor just looks better and better as years go by. When the floor is treated once a year, it is impregnated and just as good as new even after 10 years.”
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| Parketti Romanoff also offers maintenance services for their customers’ oiled floors.
“All that the customer needs to do is move their furniture out of the way. Another fact that is not yet widely understood is that 90% of the treatment service costs come from work, and can thus be deducted in taxation as domestic work – this leaves little for the customer to pay.”
In public spaces, the proper maintenance of oiled and oil-waxed floors may be entirely ignored.
"We provide the customers with instructions. However, in principle, it is possible that competitive bidding of cleaning services lead to such strict pricing that the selected cleaning company neglects floor maintenance. In public places maintenance treatments should be done 3-4 times a year to keep the floor in good condition. We still have a lot to learn in that respect."
Ecological issues interest consumers
The company's current premises in Piispankylä, Vantaa were built in 2003 and showcase an extensive range of products, reflecting the increased interest in ecological issues.
“Customers are now interested in ecological products. Stained oak, for instance, is an ecological choice compared to timber from rain forests.” Through certifications, customers can track how environmentally friendly a product is.
Designers to join product development
Parketti Romanoff has developed new ways of working. The company works closely with construction companies as their subcontractor.
Another pioneering step is the company’s own trade mark, launched four years ago.
“We contract our own product series out to several manufacturers. We use well-known interior designers in trying to find new trends and sniffing around for new sales hits.”
Another good source for hints is trade fairs. A couple of years ago, exports to Russia amounted to a million euros.
“Different countries and continents have different cultures. Trends from Central Europe reach us with a slight delay. Certainly, Italian and Dutch trends are applicable to our market as well.”
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The biggest difference in the parquet culture, in Tommi Romanoff’s opinion, is that Nordic manufacturers are more conservative than others.
“Elsewhere in the world, designers are included in the planning phase. They give additional impetus to planning best-selling, trendy products. Even in Sweden, designers join in at the product development phase.”
On the other hand, he sees that there is a gap between the ordinary consumer and desing products.
“Currently, a basic product sells at 20-30 euros per m3 whereas a design product sells at 80 euros per m3. I want to narrow down this gap and create a new range of products between these two extremes, to create so called everyman’s design.”
For some Finnish consumers, domestic production is an impowhereasrtant factor in selection, too. Romanoff finds it unfortunate that production has moved away from Finland at a fast pace. For this reason, one of the company’s newest partners is OR Group.
“In our cooperation with OR Group, we are looking for domestic production, quality and stability. A domestic partner also speeds up the logistic process and increases environmental friendliness, as long transportation routes can be avoided. The logistics also run quickly and easily.” | |