European laminate flooring manufacturers are kicking off the new laminate flooring season with a wealth of creative decoration ideas. Light and medium earth tones like "greige" are now the order of the day for flooring, while larger and wider sizes are bang on trend. Modern yet rustic boards appeal to the senses with their distinctly tactile textured surfaces, installed using innovative synchronisation technology.

The Chinese flooring market is huge. In 2011 alone, US market research organisation Catalina Research estimated that total sales throughout China amounted to 3.9 billion m2. The high-end segment of this market offers growing potential for European-made quality laminate flooring, and the EPLF (Association of European Producers of Laminate Flooring) believes that the Chinese market is once again offering good opportunities for its members.