Fusion Twist from Balta Carpets

Balta carpets had promised more colour into the UK market and are delivering on their part in funonthefloor with several new ranges.

The latest of these I got hold of today is Fusion Twist. Coming in a whopping colour palette featuring 30 shades to cover any taste.

30 Colours

Technically it is not a top of the range product, far from it in fact. It comes with a 5 year wear and stainfree warranty though and weighs in at 20oz (Dublin is 13oz, Bali is 15oz), so it’s not as bad as some and for a budget twist, it is pretty good value. It is only available felt-backed and 4m wide.

I’d reckon it will go out between £6 and £10 per metre and it will sell very well with landlords and for cheap kids’ bedrooms. It seems like it could well be the new version of Fiesta Twist, which was once a top seller at this kind of price.

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Leolan Vinyls

Fantazy: This is very much Leolan’s ‘fun’ vinyl. It comes with a paltry 5 year warranty, easily Leolan’s shortest! but this is a range that sells on its designs. Having said that, there is nothing wrong with the product. It is 3mm thick and, unusually these days, comes without an R10 slip-resistant badge.

To the designs, not all are funky and quirky by any means. They have the ‘chessboard’ Alicante design as well as the plain marble Avalon design to cater for the more mainstream customer, but if you are looking for something a little different then Fantazy is a good bet. We’ve seen people use it in kids’ playrooms, bedrooms and home offices.

The ultimate in little boys’ flooring choice has to be this:

Route 66?

 There is also a cracking ‘jigsaw puzzle’ design in there and a very ‘girl-friendly’ design called ‘Flower’:

Flower Power

 On top of that, the ‘Drops’ and ‘Gobi’ designs are very usable in bathrooms and ensuites, regardless of their lack of slip-resistance. It might be preferable to avoid them for anyone who has mobility issues though. Anyway , all are available on Yourfloors and you will probably pay £15-£20 per square metre for them.

Steps: A lower-end vinyl – this one from Leolan once again comes without slip-resistance, but I think I am right in saying that only this and Fantazy are the only ones within their ranges that do not feature this.

I do find Steps useful though. Technically it is 2.5mm thick and has a wear layer of 0.2mm, so it’s not going to compete as far as wear goes with Leolan’s higher spec (and price) products. Having said that though, it does not feel or look cheap and nasty and I have no qualms about supplying and fitting it. Like all Leolan’s products, it is a long time since we had any kind of problem with them.

The reason I often show Steps to customers is that they offer a large green and blue simple square tile, and that is hard to find these days. Once this kind of design was commonplace, but now Leolan’s Vigo design is one of very few:

VIgo 025 DesignVigo 075

Once we get past that the designs are nothing out of the ordinary, but are all steady and solid sellers. You can view them here, but a word of warning in that not all of those designs will be distributed in the UK within that range at least. Some of the designs will be available in other ranges though.

You can expect to pay £12-£15 per square metre for this product.

THIS POST WILL BE UPDATED WITH MORE INFORMATION VERY SOON!

Abingdon? You’re Having A Laugh

At one time, Abingdon were one of our biggest suppliers of carpet. That was when they were known as Carpets International. We would stock many rolls of a lot of their ranges, take their display stands and do very well with them.

That now seems like a long time ago (it was only about 7 years back). Yesterday I acquired their new sampling for the revamped (?) Stainfree Twist, Stainfree Heather and Stainfree Tweed ranges they run and what a massive disappointment they are.

Used to Sell Well

First off, a word to Abingdon about their samples – display stands tend to be 18″ wide or 27″ wide. Nine inch wide samples fit on these stands nicely, look good and sell the product. However, if you make them nine and a half inches wide, they look crap and don’t sell the product. Very careless of whoever made that decision. Now they don’t look the best on our display racks.

So to the carpet itself. Well the colours are certainly plentiful and varied and Abingdon certainly still believe in colour – it isn’t all beige and brown thankfully. The feel of this carpet though is unimpressive given its price. I’d say it will retail between £14.99 – £18.99 per metre and frankly for that money it is poor value. Talk all you like about the warranty, but the fact is that most comparable companies now offer similar warranties and at a lower price.

Wilkies Carpets list the pile weight as being 35oz for Stainfree Twist and 33oz for Stainfree Heather and Stainfree Tweed.  Compare that with Shepherd Twist by Balta at 45oz and likely to retail for less and Stain Defender by Domo at 40oz which will retail for way less. There are ranges aplenty that outscore these and Abingdon are merely trading on the brand name here.

One plus point is that it can be ordered 2m, 3m, 4m and 5m wide, but realistically the orders for us at least will be few and far between. I’ve put it out on the racks, but it looks well beaten by the other ranges either side of it.

It isn’t a crappy carpet, but it’s really not worth the kind of money you will be asked for it in my opinion. Oh and if you are offered Stainfree Style instead of these three ranges then I’d say avoid it – it’s a poor replacement and some colours are the same so be careful for unscrupulous traders trying to pass of the lightweight Stainfree Style (26oz) for the heavier weight Stainfree Twist.

At least it’s made in the UK though.

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