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MANUFACTURERS Q&A
factory. This was done in a large housing
Junckers flooring in West Hub, University of Cambridge
complex that was refurbished last
year. Instead of ripping the floors out
and treating them as waste, they were
refinished and reinstalled.
Q How robust is your supply chain in
the face of global issues such as war?
A As a company, we work with large,
global companies and contractors as
well as smaller projects. Even though the
square meterage can vary enormously,
all our customers have to be able to
put their trust in us. Due diligence and
financial checks alone aren’t enough. We
have robust practices in place to mitigate
against business disruption due to
geopolitical factors, over-reliance on raw
material sources, cyber security threats
and many other risks to avoid disruption
to our clients’ construction timelines.
Q What flooring trends are you seeing
at the moment, and how do these
influence your product development?
more they have to demonstrate using all have to come together to counteract A More and more, we are asked about
responsibly sourced and manufactured the climate emergency we’re facing. the sustainability and longevity of our
products and materials and for schools product. The two go hand-in-hand
and public buildings new measurements Q What innovation can your clients for specifiers and are intrinsically
on embodied carbon are imminent. expect from you in the future? linked to securing funding for any
A We think the ability to reuse, public buildings. Another area that is
Q How important do you feel offering a
bespoke and unique flooring solution is repurpose and refurbish is more and increasingly important to our customers
to a business? more important. In the last few years, is maintenance. You might not think of
Clients, architects and designers invest the architectural community and industry maintaining floors as a trend but the
their time and energies into creating stakeholders have highlighted the ability to refurbish to keep floors looking
inspiring spaces for work, play and importance of using our existing building beautiful and performing well makes a
rest. We are fortunate to be given the stock – refurbishing and updating, massive difference to the lifetime cost of
opportunity to help them bring their rather than demolishing and building a floor.
visions to reality. With solid hardwood new as a major way to reduce carbon Herringbone and patterned parquet floors
floors, each floor is unique with the emissions. This train of thought also continue to be very popular and we’re
natural look and feel inherent in timber, relates to building materials. A product seeing a growing preference for warmer
including oak, ash, maple and beech. and material that can be recycled, reused colours – browns and warm natural
or repurposed contributes to a more colours rather than greys. We’re launching
Q Is sustainability and ethical circular economy and I believe, a more a new unfinished Single Steve floor and
manufacturing a key commitment to responsible way of working. several new colours in our Eco 2K Floor
your business, and if so, why? In the past few years, we’ve introduced Oil this year. This is one of our most
It is, and this is in fact nothing new a Reuse Scheme which is proving very popular finishing products. It can be used
at Junckers. It’s the way the company successful. We work with specialist with or without a hardener and it can be
has always worked. We’re absolutely partners in the flooring industry to lift over-coated with one of our water-based
committed to providing a wholly Junckers floors that need to be replaced lacquers.
sustainable product and work hard to that can be used as flooring in another Q
establish proven evidence that our floors location or repurposed as a building Where do you see the company in five
are sourced and made in a sustainable, material. You will have seen reclaimed years?
ethical way. On the world stage, we’ve floors with old line marking paint A Approaching a century in business,
signed up to the UN Global Compact randomly placed across the floorboards Junckers will continue to innovate.
and Science Based Target initiatives and – a very popular look in retail and The continuing pressure on our world’s
we have environmental management hospitality settings, but a solid hardwood natural resources will likely see greater
systems covering the working floor can be sanded back to bare wood demand for sustainably produced, natural
environment in place. and refinished. This makes the floor look building materials that reliably perform
This is an area where we all have to new again, it’s quite extraordinary. throughout a buildings 60-year design
take responsibility. It’s not enough to In Denmark, our parent company has life. I feel confident Junckers is well
show a picture of a forest or branches of even launched a service whereby floors positioned to fulfil this need.
a tree on brochures or on a website – we can be lifted and then refinished in the www.junckers.co.uk
www.contractflooringjournal.co.uk 41
@CFJMagazine CFJ July 2026

