“We wanted an upmarket design that was easy to maintain," says Robin Boyce, Senior Design Executive, Ziera Shoes. Ziera Shoes is a new era of Kumfs – an iconic Kiwi brand that has recently been rebranded with a new look for its New Zealand and Australian stores. Polyflor’s new Expona Design range has played a key role in that new look.

“The rebranding gave us a great opportunity to look at all our stores afresh," says Boyce. "Ziera Shoes are all about the perfect blend of fashion, comfort and style and we wanted our new-look stores to reflect that. Polyflor’s new Expona Design flooring range fitted us perfectly.”

The Expona Design Collection is a range of luxury vinyl tile flooring in authentic wood, stone, slate and abstract tile designs, with realistic surface textures. It’s suitable for use within all heavy-use commercial and residential situations and features a polyurethane (PU) surface treatment to make maintenance a breeze.

While Ziera wanted its new stores to have a modern, fresh look it was important not to alienate its existing loyal customer base. Expona’s Aged Elm wood-plank design was chosen as perfectly complimenting the new stores’ colour scheme. While having an elegant and fashionable look, the designers felt this colour would not date quickly.

The colour was also neutral enough not to clash with the footwear on display, nor would it detract from the shoes when customers were trying them on and looking down at their feet. The flooring feels luxurious underfoot - especially important when customers are walking around a store known for its comfortable shoes.

Aged Elm is being used throughout all 50 new-look Ziera Shoe stores across Australasia, with many more in the planning stages.

Polyflor Expona Design has achieved Ecospecifier Green Tag Silver certification, complying with the Materials Flooring credits and Indoor Environment Quality VOC credits of the Green Star Rating Tools. It is 100% recyclable through the Recofloor Vinyl Take-Back scheme, which reduces the amount of vinyl flooring going to local landfill.

Through localised schemes, flooring offcuts from the installation process are recycled back into new flooring. Uplifted or end-of-life material is downcycled into traffic-calming products such as traffic cones and road barrier bases.