Tefloor Export Division · Brand Profile
When an overseas contractor, distributor or project specifier asks us for a premium commercial carpet that will survive a fifteen-year service life and pass a green building submittal without a six-week documentation chase, Mohawk Group is usually the first name we put on the table.
This article is a working profile — what the brand actually is, which technologies matter at specification stage, how the supply chain works for Asia Pacific and other export destinations, and what to check before you commit to a container.
1. What Mohawk Group is — and what it is not
Mohawk Group is the commercial flooring division of Mohawk Industries, headquartered in Calhoun, Georgia. Mohawk Industries is the world’s largest flooring manufacturer, listed on the New York Stock Exchange, with a product range spanning soft and hard surface: carpet, resilient, laminate, wood, ceramic and stone.
Two clarifications that save buyers time:
It is not the same company as Shaw Contract. Shaw is a separate group (a Berkshire Hathaway subsidiary). The two are routinely confused because both dominate North American commercial carpet. They have different backing systems, different certification portfolios and very different Asia Pacific supply models.
Regional brand stewardship varies. In the Americas, Mohawk Group operates directly. In EMEA, the Mohawk Group brand is carried by Unilin (a Mohawk Industries company) following the integration of IVC Commercial. In Australia and New Zealand, Mohawk’s commercial carpet is delivered through GH Commercial / Godfrey Hirst, which uses locally recognised constructions and the Enviro Bac® backing platform. For an export buyer this matters: the brand is global, but the shipping origin, available constructions and certification documents depend on which entity supplies your region. Always confirm origin at quotation stage so your Certificate of Origin and duty planning are correct.
The brand family
Mohawk Group is structured as a portfolio rather than a single label, which lets a project hold one supplier relationship across very different spaces:
| Brand | Focus |
|---|---|
| Mohawk | Core commercial — corporate, education, healthcare, retail |
| Durkan | Hospitality — hotels, casinos, ballrooms, guest corridors |
| Lees | High-traffic institutional — airports, transport, education |
| Bigelow | Facility and property-manager led specification |
| Karastan | Premium residential and high-end rugs |
2. The technology that actually decides performance
Most buyers evaluate carpet on colour and price. The decisions that determine whether a floor still looks acceptable in year seven are made in the backing and the fibre.
EcoFlex™ backing platform
| Backing | What it is | Why it matters commercially |
|---|---|---|
| EcoFlex™ NXT | Polyolefin, PVC-free, no plasticisers | ~40% lighter than comparable PVC tile → lower freight cost per m²; minimum 35% pre-consumer recycled content; NSF/ANSI 140 Gold; Declare Red List Free |
| EcoFlex™ NXT Air | Cushioned version | Added acoustic and underfoot comfort for workplace and education |
| EcoFlex™ One | Cushioned, Living Product certified | Lowest embodied carbon option; acoustic layer with high recycled content |
| EcoFlex™ Matrix ULC | Ultra-low carbon | Declared footprint of 3.92 kg CO₂/m² — Mohawk’s lowest carbon product to date |
| EcoFlex™ ITC / ICT | Vinyl hardback | Traditional hardback option where maximum dimensional stability is required |
The freight point is worth modelling. A 40% reduction in tile weight does not just help the installer’s back — on a long-haul shipment it changes your cost per landed square metre. If you are quoting a remote destination or an air-freighted urgent top-up, specify NXT and ask for the weight per carton before you price.
Moisture tolerance is the hidden saving. EcoFlex NXT is impervious to moisture damage from spills and water-extraction cleaning, and when installed with FlexLok® adhesive-free tabs it can tolerate slab moisture far beyond conventional glue-down limits — industry reporting cites tolerance up to 99% RH in floating installations. In practice that can eliminate moisture mitigation, grinding and sealing from your site budget, and remove a common cause of delay and claim.
Fibre systems
- Duracolor® and Duracolor® Tricor solution-dyed nylon. Tricor uses a modified triangular fibre cross-section to deliver stain resistance, colourfastness, colour clarity and soil-hiding performance. Stain resistance is built into the fibre, not applied as a topical treatment that wears off.
- Heathered Hues yarn system — a dematerialised, water-free production yarn that gives a variegated, wool-like appearance, used on Living Product certified styles.
- Anti-static performance: Mohawk warrants modular carpet will not discharge above 3.5 kV when tested to AATCC 134.
Beyond carpet
Mohawk Group’s commercial portfolio extends well beyond textile flooring, which makes consolidation realistic:
- LVT — including the GeoCode collection, designed for commercial interiors
- Static Shift — electrostatic discharge (ESD) flooring for data centres, labs and spaces with combustible materials
- Broadloom and woven constructions for hospitality and public space
3. Sustainability: documentation as a delivered product
For many export projects, the environmental paperwork is now as commercially decisive as the price. This is where Mohawk is strongest.
- Beyond Carbon Neutral since 2022 — every Mohawk Group floorcovering product (carpet tile, broadloom, woven, LVT and other resilient surfaces) carries an additional carbon offset beyond neutral, for a 5% net-positive impact.
- Living Product Challenge (LPC) Petal Certification — among the most stringent product certifications in the world, requiring Red List Free materials and net-positive carbon and water. Manufacturing takes place at Mohawk’s “Living Site” facility in Glasgow, Virginia. Since launching its first petal-certified product, Mohawk reports restoring over 850,000 metric tonnes of carbon.
- Transparency library — over 500 Red List Free products, with one of the industry’s largest selections of Declare labels, Health Product Declarations (HPDs) and product-specific Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs). The company released seven EPDs covering its four commercial carpet tile platforms and three LVT platforms in a single cycle.
- The Climate Pledge signatory, targeting net-zero before 2040.
- water.org partnership — by 2030, aiming to give 75,000 people lasting access to safe water.
- Sustainability Estimator — an online tool that lets a design team enter the product platform and floor area and see the projected impact. For a client reporting against ESG targets, this converts a sustainability claim into a number.
What this means for your submittal: LEED, WELL, BREEAM and Green Star documentation can usually be assembled from published, product-specific documents rather than bespoke requests. Ask for the EPD and Declare label for the exact style and backing combination you are buying — certifications are product-specific, and they expire.
4. Supply to Asia Pacific and export markets
Regional presence. Mohawk Group’s Asia Pacific anchors are its Shanghai showroom (The Place, 100 Zunyi Road, Shanghai) and its Sydney showroom (Lilyfield, NSW), supported by sales representation across the region.
Asia Pacific Quick Ship programme. Orders of 2,000 m² or less are committed to ship within 10 business days, with many running-line selections held in stock for immediate dispatch anywhere on the Pacific rim. For a fast-track office fit-out where the floor sits on the critical path, this is often the deciding factor — and it should be written into the tender as a compliance requirement rather than assumed.
Warranty. Mohawk’s modular carpet carries a lifetime limited modular warranty covering wear (no more than 10% surface pile fibre loss), static protection, edge ravel/zippering, delamination and dimensional stability. A published reference service life of 15 years is used in its EPDs, though technical service life can be considerably longer with correct maintenance.
Representative specification (typical commercial plank construction):
| Parameter | Typical value |
|---|---|
| Yarn | Duracolor® solution-dyed nylon |
| Size | 304.8 × 914.4 mm plank; also 500 × 500 mm, 610 × 610 mm |
| Gauge | 1/12 (47 per 10 cm) |
| Total thickness | 6.5 mm (±1.0) |
| Pile weight | ~848 g/m² (25 oz) |
| Packing | ~14 pieces / 3.9 m² per carton; ~105 m² per pallet |
| Fire | ASTM E648 critical radiant flux Class I (0.59 W/cm² for EcoFlex NXT constructions) |
| IAQ | CRI Green Label Plus |
| Warranty | 15 years contract guarantee |
| Transparency | Declare Red List Free; PVC-free |
Figures are indicative of common constructions — always confirm against the technical data sheet for the style you are ordering.
5. Where Mohawk wins
| Sector | Why Mohawk fits |
|---|---|
| Corporate workplace | Acoustic control, ergonomic comfort, modular replacement, Living Product certification for ESG reporting |
| Hospitality | Durkan brand — high-style, high-performance carpet for lobbies, corridors, ballrooms and casinos |
| Education | High-traffic durability, soil hiding, easy tile replacement between terms |
| Healthcare | Low-emission materials, Red List Free options, cleanability |
| Transport & aviation | Lees — proven in the world’s busiest terminals |
| Data & technical spaces | Static Shift ESD flooring |
Design-wise, Mohawk’s recent direction rewards specifiers who want a narrative as well as a surface. Smart City — a 12″ × 36″ Living Product certified carpet plank system developed with Gensler as design consultant — reinterprets metropolitan transit maps into soft surface, with colourways drawn from Berlin, Istanbul, London, New York, Paris and Shanghai. Lichen, developed with McLennan Design, was the first flooring product to achieve Living Product Challenge Petal Certification. Current collections include Adaptive Alliance, GeoCode, MultiSensory, Nutopia, Colour Balance, Fractal Ground, Shape Theory and Optic Reset.
6. Export and logistics — what to confirm before you quote
HS classification. Tufted carpet tile generally falls under HS Chapter 57, heading 5703:
- Nylon or other polyamides, tufted, tiles ≤1 m² → 5703.29 (EU CN 5703 29 91 non-printed / 5703 29 10 printed)
- Other man-made textile materials → 5703.39
- Wool or fine animal hair → 5703.10
Indicative duties: EU third-country (MFN) rate under 5703 is around 8%; China’s export rebate for tufted carpet under Chapter 57 is currently 13%; several Southeast Asian destinations admit tufted nylon carpet at 0% under China–ASEAN (Form E), with RCEP rates applying elsewhere. These change — verify the exact sub-heading and current rate with your broker before contracting.
Packing and container loading. Carpet tile is volume-sensitive rather than weight-sensitive. A commonly used industry benchmark for 500 × 500 mm tile is approximately 3,400 m² per 20ft container and around 6,000 m² per 40ft HQ (e.g. 24 pieces/box, 32 boxes/pallet). Cushion-backed and heavier constructions will load less. We issue a per-style packing calculation — cartons per pallet, pallets per container, net and gross weight — before order confirmation, so your landed cost model is built on real numbers. Cartons themselves carry high recycled content and are recyclable.
Documentation we can supply with shipment:
- Commercial invoice, packing list, bill of lading
- Certificate of Origin / Form E / RCEP Certificate of Origin
- Fire test report — ASTM E648 (critical radiant flux), EN 13501-1, or GB 8624 B1 as the destination requires
- CRI Green Label Plus indoor air quality certificate
- EPD / Declare label / HPD for green building submittals
- Manufacturer warranty certificate and dye-lot records
- Installation, adhesive and maintenance guidance
Samples. Sample tiles and full folders ship by international courier. For project-specific or custom colourways, lead times vary by platform and should be confirmed at enquiry.
7. Specifying Mohawk: a short checklist
- Choose the backing for the site, not the showroom. Remote or weight-sensitive destination → EcoFlex NXT for freight saving. Problem subfloor or phased/occupied install → FlexLok tab system. Maximum acoustic comfort → EcoFlex One or NXT Air. Hardest-wearing circulation → ITC hardback.
- Fix the fibre to the traffic. Duracolor Tricor solution-dyed nylon is the default for heavy commercial use; confirm pile weight and texture against the use classification rather than the photograph.
- Request certification per colourway. Declare, EPD and fire certificates are product-specific. Ask for the documents for the exact tile on your schedule.
- Model the landed cost, not the unit price. Lighter backing, container utilisation, export rebate and preferential duty can move your margin more than a small discount on the tile.
- Write attic stock into the handover. Modular tile only delivers its lifecycle advantage if the facilities team holds replacement tiles from the original dye lot.
- Confirm ship-from origin early. Americas, EMEA (Unilin), ANZ (GH Commercial) and APAC stocking routes differ — this determines your origin certificate and duty treatment.
Working with Tefloor
Tefloor supports overseas buyers, distributors and project contractors sourcing Mohawk Group:
- Full-portfolio sourcing — Mohawk, Durkan, Lees, Bigelow and Karastan, plus LVT and Static Shift ESD, with style cross-referencing when a specified colourway is discontinued or not carried in your region
- Landed-cost modelling — product, packing, freight, duty and export rebate, so you can price your market before committing
- Container consolidation — mixing carpet tile, LVT, entrance flooring and accessories to make container volume and weight work harder
- Documentation handling — origin certificates, fire and IAQ test reports, EPD / Declare / HPD packs prepared per destination market
- Technical backup — construction and backing selection, adhesive and installation guidance, and attic-stock planning for the facilities team
MOQ per style, FOB port, payment terms and delivery schedules are confirmed against your specific enquiry, as they vary by product line, supplying entity and destination.