The global cement tile market is on a rise. The growth of its market is influenced by several factors, such as: durability and ease maintenance, growth in the real estate sector, technological advancements, and increasing popularity across the US and Canada. Over the course of the next five years, the market is expected to grow at CAGR of more than 4.12%. And one of the key players in the industry is Villa Lagoon Tiles, an US market pioneer and Alabama based tile distributor and manufacturer.
The History of Cement Tile Designs
Though the origin is still unknown, it is speculated that the art of crafting encaustic cement tiles began as far back as the early 1800’s. The first known reference is from a factory in Barcelona, Butsems & Co, in 1857. Now, over 160 years have gone by, and the technique of how to craft these tiles has gone unchanged. The tiles are 100% handmade, naturally dried, without the use of a kiln (a furnace or oven for burning, baking, or drying, especially one for calcining lime or firing pottery), resulting in an environmentally friendly production method.
Today, cement tiles are used across the globe, in both floor and wall design. The tiles are very popular in parts of Europe, Central America, and of South America and Asia. In the US they were very popular in the 1920’s when they were used in thousands of landmark public buildings. In the past few years, they seem to be regaining popularity in parts of the country, especially in Alabama and Florida. You may have heard of them referred to as Cuban Tiles.
Behind the Scenes of Villa Lagoon Tile
Villa Lagoon was established in 2008 when founder and CEO, Lundy Wilder, was researching tile designs for her own Gulf Coast home in Alabama. During this process, Wilder realized how cement design tiles, though still widely popular across the globe, were virtually unknown in the United States and difficult to source locally. Rather than turning to imports for her home design, Wilder saw this as a potential business opportunity, and a way to bring the tiles for her personal project. During this process she founded Villa Lagoon Tile.
Over the past ten years the business has grown exponentially and the company now sells designed tiles all across the US and even overseas. They have over 300 different tile designs available online, and over 60,000 sq ft of inventory ready for sale. From their humble beginnings in 2008, Villa Lagoon now boasts large international clients such as Disney Resorts in Shanghai and Hong Kong, and a casino in Macau. Locally, they have worked in projects of all shapes and sizes,from small residential apartments to large hotels.
Apart from all the pre-designed tiles available on Villa Lagoons website, shoppers can also customize their own tiles by selecting a pattern and adjusting the colors and layout to their preference.
Learn more about Villa Lagoon Tiles and their beautiful designs here: https://www.villalagoontile.com/
The Good Struggle
Prior to Odoo, Villa Lagoon Tile, just as many small-medium size business, used to manage their inventory through Google Doc spreadsheets. Every time a sale was made, a salesperson would have to go and manually change the numbers on the spreadsheet. Simple as that. However as the company started to grow - both in sales and number of employees - managing inventory and human errors became difficult and very time-consuming. John Adams, Director of Technology, would spend hours correcting spreadsheets, and training employees to try to minimize their margin of error.
As the company continued to grow, John knew something needed to change. He started to research inventory applications that would solve their problems and fit Villa Lagoon’s budget. As well as an inventory solution, John was also looking for a sales solution that would speed up the sales generation process, since it was all being done manually.
Another one of John’s major issues, was the fact that his customers wanted to buy tile per square foot, but all his inventory and production/buying was done in units. So the solution he was looking for would needed to be customizable to his business.
John came across at least a dozen options before he decided to go with Odoo. The idea of having a fully integrated solution, with a low entry cost really caught his attention. All of these factors combined with the new Dealership Program that the company had just implemented, made managing inventory through a spreadsheet in times of high demand, impossible. And that’s when John decided to try Odoo.