12.11.2013Project Reports

New Center of Excelence for natural wood floors opens in Linz, Austria


On Thursday 16th January 2014, mafi is opening its first Flagship store in the centre of Linz, at 9 Marientstrasse to be exact.

"Our intention with this is to confront the often seen problem of visionaries being valued more abroad than at home.” explains Friedrich Fillafer, CEO of mafi Natural Wooden Floors GmbH.

This family owned company comes originally from Schneegattern, Upper Austria and operates three Austrian flagship stores to date in Salzburg, Graz and Vienna. The export rate is 70%.

mafi floors can be found in 50 countries around the world. Subsidiaries operate also in America, Italy and Switzerland. “Well of course we also want to be sufficiently represented in our own back yard” explains Fillafer.

Internationally successful craftsmanship from Upper Austria

Despite being strong internationally, mafi is still a manufacturer that produces to order, not for stock. "This of course gives us a larger room for manoeuvre in order to better meet customer needs," Friedrich Fillafer reaffirmed. This customer list includes celebrities such as Claudia Schiffer and Giorgio Armani as well as star architect Norman Foster. A quite unusual project is the Catedral Basílica de Zacatecas in Mexico, which has a large area equipped with mafi natural wooden floors. Recently, projects such as Melbourne International Airport and the Revel Casino in Atlantic City were completed.

Preserve the good, reduce the bad

mafi planks are created to a simple but clear philosophy. To work with wood means reducing the bad, while preserving the good. When applied to wooden floors, it's about keeping the regenerative abilities and health promoting aspects of the wood, whilst curbing wear & tear as well as the swelling and shrinkage behaviour of the wood. For this mafi chooses a combination of air-dried, oiled surfaces and a symmetrical three layer floorboard structure. In this way, the wooden floorboards remain natural and breathable, whilst still stable and robust. The awkward gap formation on underfloor heating is also greatly reduced by this symmetrical structure.

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