High-performance floors and walls for the long term: Erv Parent Co. Ltd

High-performance floors and walls for the long term Erv Parent Co. Ltd. thinks long-term

Long-term thinking has been a core practice at Erv Parent Co. Ltd. for over 55 years. Founded in 1958 as a floorcovering installation company, Karl Brunner and Lars Rust took over the firm in the late 1960’s and changed operations to distribution, building relationships with world-leading manufacturers that continue to this day. With the addition of Otto Ratfelder as a partner in Winnipeg in the late 1970’s, Erv Parent expanded to cover all of Western Canada. Now the next generation of the Rust, Brunner and Ratfelder families are taking the company forward, keen to continue the tradition of service their customers expect.

Focused on providing quality flooring solutions to the education, healthcare, institutional and commercial markets, the Erv Parent team specializes in consulting with end-users, architects and designers, as well as the flooring trade to combine products. They take into account not just product quality, but also installation details, maintenance systems and lifecycle planning to provide the best solution tailored to each facility and project.

Erv Parent works to establish longterm relationships with everyone they meet. They have many employees who have been with the company for over 25 years, which helps to give a stable and consistent face to their customers. The Erv Parent rep will be there to answer questions or provide answers and solutions as they arise.

They develop long-term relationships with their suppliers too – Erv Parent is proud to have represented Tarkett and Altro in Western Canada for over 40 years, Mondo Sport for over 30 years, and Adore LVT for 10 years. Constant training from our manufacturers ensures that we remain leaders in both product and industry knowledge. Erv Parent stocks material locally for fast, easy supply when material is required in a rush and has consistent availability from constant shipments from its manufacturers.

Long-term relations with customers are vital to Erv Parent. The company’s flooring solutions combine the best in function, colour and design, environmental performance and safety, and the Erv Parent team is always available to assist clients in the selection process. They also know that a sale does not end with the supply of material, but continues afterwards in maintenance, updates and repairs that are inevitably required in an education facility.

Staying connected with industry groups is something else that Erv Parent has taken seriously over the years – a membership with EFMA since 1966 being an example of this.

Thinking long-term is also sustainable. Top-performing products with excellent maintenance characteristics require fewer chemicals, less water and power to keep looking their best. Products with longer lifecycles need replacement less-often, and can also provide a better return on investment too.

Many Erv Parent products are no-wax products, with only a scrub and dry-buff required.

As they look to the future, Erv Parent Co. will continue to find the best solutions and systems for their customers, and always with the long-term in mind. b