Union Tiles, through its 100 years of trading, have experienced many ups and downs in the market brought on by various global and local factors.
Survival of the ‘downs’ has always been due to strong leadership, sound business values and ethics, responsible trading and having a good understanding of our market and customers.
Union Tiles survived covid in the same way. Sadly, lives were lost. We are thankful that as a company we pulled through and managed to avoid retrenchments.
Covid had a huge impact on global shipping and the distribution of raw materials and finished goods. Union Tiles adapted by: (a) strengthening relationships with old suppliers whose quality and supply we can trust. (b) Search for new suppliers in new countries to bring quality/ fashionable/well-priced products to SA. (c) Fostered our relationships with local suppliers by developing more products with them. Focusing on more trendy designs.
After the market dip in COVID, came the boom in home renovations. We’ve had to adapt to this demand by dramatically increasing stock holding. Home renovation projects have much shorter timelines – less time to plan and less time to wait for the stock to be produced/ shipped.
We’ve seen social media and TV shows such as “the block” impacting people’s home design decisions. South Africans are moving from traditionally conservative design, and people are looking for bolder designs that make a statement in their homes. We have been searching for trending products and our range of decor tiles has never been bigger.
One room which has received the most renovation attention in people’s homes is the bathroom. It is the most sensible place to start for home upgrades on a budget. Kitchen upgrades become costly when considering kitchen cupboards etc… and changing the floor tiles of living spaces doesn’t have the same visual impact as upgrading the bathroom from floor to wall. Plus guests get to see the bathroom too.