In the mid 1970’s the Perstorp Corporation in Southern Sweden faced drastically declining sales of its well known high-pressure laminates. In response, the company created a committee in 1977 to come up with new ideas concerning other possible applications for its once dominant product. The brainstorming group was called “Idé-77”, and it compiled over one hundred ideas ranging from bowling lanes to hockey rink boards, bus stop shelters to grain silos.
Idea No. 23
Idea no. 23 on the committee’s list was written down as “Perkett – laminatgolv” (laminate flooring). It was one of the few suggestions that included a potential trade name. After further studies and tests, idea no. 23 was eventually given the green light and in the fall of 1979, the very first Perstorp laminate flooring, Perstorp Golv GL80, was put into production.
A new category is born
Perstorp’s innovation marked the birth of an entirely new category of flooring. One simple suggestion born out of adversity took root and evolved over time from a small supplementary product to a complete division, and eventually into a separate company named Perstorp Flooring AB, today known as Pergo.