October 2005 Industry Leader:

John Abrahamson: A Polished Leader in the Concrete Flooring Revolution

John Abrahamson, President of HTC-America, grew up in the floor covering industry in Minnesota. His family was in the floor covering industry, and, after Abrahamson spent time in the U.S. Navy and in college, he eventually found his way back to his roots.

For 11 years, Abrahamson worked for Shaw Industries, the world's largest carpet manufacturer, which is headquartered out of Dalton, Georgia. Most recently, he worked for Shaw Industries as a Regional Vice President in charge of sales for a large region of the United States.

In a round about way, Abrahamson's floor covering background led him to polished concrete, and to Hakan Thysell, innovator behind the HTC product line. Thysell had been manufacturing machines to polish granite and marble, and had then begun to polish concrete dry and make machines and tooling specifically for that new market.

With his floor covering background, Abrahamson wanted to take HTC products to market—not by marketing machines and tooling, but by marketing a floor and a system. That marketing approach worked, and, after floundering for several years, the infant industry began to grow by leaps and bounds.

One of the first things Abrahamson did was to put together a training facility. "Because polished concrete is such a new industry, it is important that we continually educate our contractors and our end users," he explains. "Concrete floors are like snowflakes—there are no two exactly alike. It is more than just labor. It is, in some ways, an art form."

"In order to have a pretty concrete floor, you have to first understand your floor, your canvass," Abrahamson continues. He adds that other requisite factors include a quality piece of equipment that is tried and true and quality tooling, designed to work beneath the machine.

"You must know how to select the right tooling," he adds. "Whether you are polishing the concrete or removing a coating or prepping a floor. You also need to use the correct chemicals for each job, and to know about the latest trends and technologies available. For example, there are new possibilities, only weeks old, for dying existing concrete...We've had at least a hundred people go through our facility [learning this process] in each of the past few months."

Abrahamson believes his role and the role of HTC is clear. "We are not in this just to sell a few machines and some tooling," he says. " We are in this to develop a whole new, profitable industry for our customers. Our real competition is not the next guy selling a piece of inferior tooling to fit under one of our machines. Our competition is vinyl composite tile, shot blasting, which is old technology, and every other kind of floor covering out there. The right choice in flooring for industrial use, much commercial use, and, in many cases, residential use, has been there all along. We've just chosen to cover it up."

Abrahamson says that Bob Shaw came close to realizing what it was when he came out with garage carpet. "He was looking in the right place, but he made the same old mistake and tried to find another way to cover up the concrete," says Abrahamson. "This is like covering up wood floors or marble floors with cheap carpeting. It's crazy."

Instead, Abrahamson sees the revolution being led through education. "We just need to educate the world on how beautiful concrete can be," he explains. "It's like an unpolished rock—a natural beauty awaiting a makeover. We can't just sell our contractors some equipment and leave them to educate the world alone. We need to be more than a supplier. We need to be partners with our contractors—two entities working toward a common goal."

When asked what motivates him to take a leadership role in such a daunting task as developing a new market, Abrahamson replies, "This is a new and exciting market. The excitement of what this market will be 10 years from now motivates me. We are using the newest technologies on a surface that was brought to us by the ancient Romans."

"Concrete is always going to be around," explains Abrahamson. "There are so many square feet of concrete out there untouched and in need of maintenance, and there are so many square feet of concrete being maintained in expensive and improper ways. Our methods are very economical, and they are very ecological. Polished concrete is very environmentally friendly. It is the perfect solution for the new millennium. Concrete, in so very many ways, is the answer for the new millennium. Isn't it ironic that one of the oldest surfaces out there is inspiring so many solutions for the modern world?"

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