Finfioor – Filling the gap in the flooring industry, in more ways than one

Now, I have access to an outside perspective and good ideas through my Grow coach, greater visibility into the profit margins, and clearer insights into the company’s performance.

The entrepreneurial spirit sounds like a mystical experience, but it’s really a mindset or attitude that actively seeks out change and embraces critical questioning, innovation, service, and continuous improvement. We find it in all manner of business arenas, but it’s usually quite obvious in those people who look for gaps in the market and pour their energy into make these opportunities a reality.

This accurately describes Sasha Kozinksy, an entrepreneur with a tenacious ability to see where the market’s needs are and meet them. Over and over again. Sasha is the owner of Finfloor, the innovative wooden, vinyl, and laminate flooring company responsible for introducing these products to the South African market. Having lived in the UK for a number of years, he returned to South Africa in 2003 with a strong desire to run a business. The opportunity presented itself when Inovar Floor in Sandton, Johannesburg became available for purchase.

Originally initiated by Peter Willis, the founder and former owner of Finfloor, Inovar Floor was established as a chain of distributors for Finfloor flooring products. Not unlike Sasha, Peter believed in pursuing what you intuitively believe will work, and in 1996, he knew that laminate flooring would work in South Africa.

It was a new product in global markets and proving extremely popular, but non-existent on our shores. Peter took the opportunity to do what no one else was doing and bring in wooden and laminate flooring products to sell to both the local retail markets and through Inovar Floor.

To these distributors, Finfloor pulled out all the stops, working behind the scenes to train owners and staff, and supply, promote, and sell the products. Not one to look a gift horse in the mouth, Sasha took hold of all the support that Finfloor offered and his store became the most successful distributor from 2004 until today.

Seeing just how eager South Africa was to use these new flooring products, Sasha looked for more opportunities in the market. In 2009, he found his chance.

Not many businesses were offering high quality, temporary flooring at a competitive price, so he started Connecta-Floor. The response was incredible as clients from various industries flocked to Connecta-Floor to hire flooring products for weddings, launches, exhibitions, shopping centres, and the like.

With Peter assisting from a financial perspective and Sasha’s colleague, Chris Holden, providing the technical input, he drove sales growth. Much like with Inovar Floor, Sasha had found a niche in the marketplace and partnered with the right people to make a success.

Finfloor had flourished over the years, but as the product became more widely understood and popular, a wave of competitors rose up. Having seen what Sasha had done in his Inovar Floor company, Peter invited him to join Finfloor in 2012. He knew that he needed to bring in trusted, younger leadership to handle the bigger, changing market and Sasha had more than proved himself.

Says Sasha, “I strongly believed that we could become the biggest, independent distributor in South Africa, get into SADC countries, and become a true national distributor – not just supplying 20- 30 Inovar Floor’s, but giving access to our superior hard floor products and service to the entire flooring market.”

He put action behind his beliefs. One of the first things Sasha did to achieve these goals was open a Johannesburg office, proving Finfloor’s commitment to its Gauteng clients and shortening their delivery times. He also increased the database to sell to more flooring companies, all the while continuing support the Inovar Floor’s distributors. Additionally, he took the risk of going overseas to bring back new products that offered different colours, textures, and prices. These actions paid off and duly distinguished Finfloor from other suppliers company’s journey, and yet she felt that she was more ‘Denver’s daughter’ than a valuable member of the company. She took a sabbatical to pursue other interests and explore the world outside of Polyflor, studying a diploma in reflexology for two years and thereafter establishing a successful bookkeeping company.

This time of self-discovery paid off. Tandy found an internal powerhouse and in 2009, when she returned to the business, she did so with confidence.

In a short space of time, Sasha had increased Finfloor’s product range and client base. However, the company had lost a lot of market share prior to this point due to competitor activity and things were going backwards – not forwards.

Around this time, Peter, who had reached 80 years of age, decided to retire and sell his shares to Sasha. While Sasha and Peter had a good relationship, Sasha knew that they would benefit greatly from an outside perspective to help them navigate Peter leaving Finfloor.

Says Sasha, “I reached out to Grow when I had the opportunity to buy Finfloor and their impact was immediate. My coach helped me understand my options and the financial implications of the sale. He also gave vital insight into how to sensitively negotiate the sale and put me in contact with reputable lawyers to draw up the paperwork.”

It wasn’t just in this area where Grow proved an invaluable support to Sasha, though.

In addition to guiding Peter’s exit from the company, Sasha also had to contend with managing the business as it grew. Adds Sasha, “My skills are entrepreneurial and in sales – not in numbers. There wasn’t clear financial reporting and I was out of my depth. I needed guidance to get the business where I wanted to go, so I kept Grow on.”

The first place they started was the numbers. Together, Sasha and his coach defined what financial information was required, decided what processes needed to be put in place, and recruited a new financial person.

From there, they explored how best to tackle Sasha’s desire to make Finfloor the market leader that he knew it could be. This naturally led to exploring Sasha’s involvement in his two other businesses, Inovar Floor and Connecta-Floor, which demanded a lot of his time.

It was important to set up a system that would relieve Sasha of his day-to-day management responsibilities. They had already hired a financial person for Finfloor, as well as a Johannesburg branch manager, and had started developing a leadership team to support Sasha specifically around the business.

This wasn’t enough and after talking with his coach about Finfloor’s goals, Sasha concluded that he needed to sell Inovar Floor and Connecta-Floor so that he could fully focus on Finfloor. There was so much that he wanted to accomplish and with more capacity, he would be able to do so.

Says Sasha, “Grow has been a major help to me. I don’t have any direct partners involved in the business on a day-to-day basis and would have had to subcontract out to different parties to perform certain business functions. Now, I have access to an outside perspective and good ideas through my Grow coach, greater visibility into the profit margins, and clearer insights into the company’s performance.”

With a leadership team in place at Finfloor, Sasha has been able to drive sales and market growth very successfully in a tough economic market nearly doubling the size of the business since acquiring the company.

The company now fully services the whole of South Africa, with warehouses in Johannesburg, Durban and Cape Town. Moreover, their track record for honouring their commitments is unblemished and their products have already outlived their original 10 year warranties. Importantly, with improved processes, the right people in place to support their goals, and good control over the business, Finfloor has the strategic base to continue to grow and be successful for years to come.