EPLF opens its books ... Market share in Europe reaches 77.1 percent / Growth potential in North America and Asia

Back from the summer recess, the ELPF - Association of European Producers of Laminate Flooring is offering, after a successful member motion, an insight into the association's market statistics for the first time. The reason for this is that all ELPF members have, as another first, produced a set of complete market data, collating the sales figures of laminate flooring sold per country, sourcing the data from all European EPLF member plants. The EPLF is home to Europe's leading producers of laminate flooring with production plants in Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Sweden, and Switzerland.

The EPLF members have sold 132 million sq.m of laminate flooring according to the statistics throughout the world in 1999. The market share of the EPLF of the world market is 59.3% according to an external study defining the world total with 222.4 million sq.m. Europe is traditionally the strongest market for the EPLF members: 103.4 million sq.m of the laminate flooring produced in Europe are sold into the European market giving the EPLF a market share of 77.1 %. Strong showing also in the North American market, which, with only 39 million sq.m, is by far not yet as developed as the European market. From these 39 million sq.m however 43.9% are sold by EPLF members ( = 17.1 million sq.m).

Exports to the Asian and Pacific region are still in their infancy. Only 8.4 million sq.m sold by EPLF members into a market totalling 46 million sq.m constitute a market share of 18.5 % in 1999. For all other regions of the world sales of 2.9 million sq.m of laminate flooring are registered, which means a market share of 79.8%.

North America and the Asian-Pacific region alike show an enormous growth potential. Some of the EPLF members have met this challenge by building local production plants. EPLF-estimates for 2000 for these regions indicate double-digit growth rates for the total market and likewise for the EPLF members.