Craig Poteet, Healthier Choice president, holds the Best New Product Award from Surfaces.


Healthier Choice’s Flexitions line of flexible, stainable transition mouldings was chosen by industry experts, designers, and the editors and columnists ofNational Floor Trends, Floor Covering InstallerandTILE Magazineas the Best New Product at Surfaces 2011 earlier this year. Craig Poteet, Healthier Choice president, said he was both honored and “at a loss for words” when the company won the award, which was presented by show organizer Hanley Wood.

Healthier Choice’s Flexitions mouldings line.

According to Poteet, customers are requesting the Flexitions line not only for its ability to create curves, arches and radiuses, but because the product is extremely durable. “A Ritz-Carlton property in Southern California is installing the product not in a flexible configuration, but straight,” Poteet noted. “They were having problems where the wooden T-molds were cracking, and they found Flexitions to be more durable.”

He said these types of installations are helping Healthier Choice expand the reach of Flexitions in the A&D community. The company plans to launch new marketing materials aimed at that side of the business.

The company is also developing new versions of its Flexitions mouldings. Healthier Choice debuted its Flexitions Rigid line and showed prototypes of new mouldings for laminate flooring installations during Surfaces. “We’re still focusing on the flexible side, but we’re looking at the Rigid product as an opportunity to explore,” Poteet explained. The company is set to launch a full line of profiles for laminate flooring installations later this year, he added.

Healthier Choice currently offers a prefinished program of 15 stains for Flexitions, along with an unfinished version with a flexible clear coat. Poteet said that people love that the product “looks like real wood when it’s stained; that’s the strongest sales feature that we have.”

“Clearly, this was a product developed with care by Gary Hernandez, Sr. [Healthier Choice’s chief business officer and evp sales and marketing],” Poteet added.