THE CORETEC ADVANTAGE
[Dalton] As the newly named brand leader of COREtec, Seth Arnold will be leaning into his marketing acumen and knack for storytelling to guide one of the largest brands in the industry forward.
“It is definitely the most recognized brand in the flooring industry. It’s also the youngest and yet the largest,” said Arnold. “The great thing about joining the COREtec team is I’m not being asked to fix something. The brand is already well positioned for growth.”
What’s more, he said, it has “unbelievable loyalty and support” from the specialty retail community. “It also has incredible demand from consumers — it’s the one brand that consumers come in asking for,” stated Arnold.
THE CONSUMER JOURNEY
Arnold already has short-term and long-term goals in place.
“One of the biggest goals is to take that consumer demand and really accelerate the journey and tell the COREtec story,” he said. “People are sitting on the sidelines; they’re waiting to see what happens this year.”
Arnold continued, “We have strong plans to help take that consumer who may be trying to decide if now is the right time to buy, bring them in and drive demand at specialty retail. We have systems in place and expertise in place and now we’re going to deliver that demand to retailers.”
CAPITALIZING ON THE DEMAND FOR WPC
The brand’s second goal will be centered on the resurgence in demand for WPC.
“It’s encouraging. It’s validation for what’s at the core of COREtec,” said Arnold. “COREtec believes in the quality of WPC as a category, and we have every intention of winning with WPC in 2025.
“Nobody is better positioned to help our retailers win than COREtec,” he said. “ We have exciting new products coming out from entry level all the way to top of the line. Winning with WPC is critical.”
SUPPORT FOR SPECIALTY RETAIL
Another goal is to focus on accelerating the commitment and support for specialty retailers.
“COREtec had incredible growth over last decade and we have a lot of retailers asking, ‘What’s next?’ What we’re going to do is double down on the commitment to the core of COREtec; prove retailers understand the brand, that they know how to win and strengthen that core of retail that makes COREtec great.”
While only in his new role for a short time now, Arnold said an interesting lesson he’s learned so far is just what it takes to be the true leader in a category.
“The underlying commitment to the whole quality of the category and protecting that value that’s been created. A flood of imitation product is coming in and making the same claims, but they don’t necessarily bear the same burden of quality and consistency,” Arnold said.
The second lesson learned has been the strength of the supply chain. “Part of delivering on quality and consistency requires an incredible strength of the supply chain because reliability and consistency don’t just happen,” he said, explaining, “Shaw spent the last five years deepening their expertise and capability across the supply chain and to remove risks.”
He continued, “The relationships built are amazing and give COREtec what it needs to truly be innovative, to put the customer first and drive that consumer mindset. A big part of how COREtec can win is agility, depth of relationships and strength of the supply chain — it’s truly been impressive.”
LEADING WITH STORY
With a talent for storytelling, Arnold said his plan is to remove anything that stands in the way of COREtec telling its story.
“There’s a lot of exciting stories to tell and step No. 1 is to empower retailers and consumers by giving them the COREtec story and helping them understand the product and make it easy to learn about COREtec.”
Arnold continued, “Because I’m a storyteller at heart, it’s exciting to see the opportunities available to connect with consumers and tell those stories because COREtec has proven itself — trust is big these days. We continue to see it’s a difficult decision for consumers to make because they don’t know who to trust. With COREtec, we can tell a great story but tell a story built on a brand that has proven itself in the largest category. That level of trust and that story to tell, the opportunities are endless.”
And COREtec’s position in the industry is indeed rooted in authority. “It is the most trusted brand; it’s the original,” said Arnold. “It also stands for innovation. There are opportunities to continue leveraging the partnerships we have. There’s the ability to think globally, find those innovations and bring them back. There’s a whole decade of innovation ahead of COREtec, which is exciting.”
INNOVATING WITH THE HELP OF RETAILERS
Under the Shaw umbrella, COREtec’s identity is embedded in innovation and technology. In 2025, Arnold said to be prepared for “incredible” innovation to come from the brand, specifically when it comes to visuals and performance.
“We have a core that we know works, so we’re creating value with a good thick product, a quarter inch product, that immediately screams quality. We’re going to continue pushing the envelope in terms of embossing and texturing, and color depth. You’ll continue to see innovation in realism,” he said.
Long term, there’s opportunity to expand the types of product formulations COREtec brings to market.
“Everyone is trying to figure out what’s the next formulation or how things should evolve. COREtec will continue to look at any type of plank flooring that can come to market and meet the quality and standards and deliver what the consumer is looking for.”
He continued, “Right now, we’re owning that core in a world where there’s 50 products coming at you making the same claims. We have the core of COREtec truly shored up.”
And Arnold is looking forward to attending his first Shaw Flooring Network (SFN) convention.
“I’m so excited about SFN because it expresses that core commitment to specialty retail,” he said. “Specialty retailers are the powerful users of technology, of the tools we have. There will be new opportunities for SFN retailers to tell the COREtec story, leverage the power of the brand and advertising strategies. The trick is how do we take national advertising to create demand and connect with the local retailer — we have exciting opportunities to do that. Plus, it’ll be easy. They just have to say ‘yes’ and it’s ready to go.”
And, of course, there will be great products on the show floor. “It’s so exciting. We’re innovating at the top end of the line to continue to create margin opportunity. We’ll continue to bring value at every price point, even in WPC. We’re keeping retailers at the core of everything we do, mostly around WPC.”
“We don’t take for granted what the retail community has done to help build the COREtec brand.” — Seth Arnold
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*This article was originally published by Floor Covering Weekly on January 13, 2025.