Ever since PVC flooring first appeared on the market, CLASSEN has made a conscious decision not to use PVC in its flooring solutions. Instead, the company has been intensively researching polypropylene (PP) as a flooring material for many years. A key focus is on material concepts that do not contain PVC and are tailored to the requirements of modern flooring.

Over more than 15 years of research and development, CLASSEN has built up a comprehensive portfolio of patents in the field of PP and also holds rights to production processes for other alternative plastics, such as PET. The company’s long-standing development efforts are aimed at combining material properties, technical performance, and opportunities for material recycling, and continuously advancing these areas.

Until now, a key challenge has been the higher cost of PP-based solutions compared to comparable PVC products. With its newly developed production process, CLASSEN is changing this economic landscape. Optimized production processes enable a lower investment threshold and high scalability while maintaining the same product quality standards. The resulting flooring products are characterized, among other things, by dimensional stability, water resistance, and a design built for long-term use. At the same time, according to the company, the new process enables production costs to remain at a level comparable to that of traditional PVC products.

CLASSEN sees this as the foundation for making PP-based solutions available to additional market segments. Current product developments are also exploring the use of PP beyond flooring. Possible applications in interior design include, for example, doors, wall paneling, moldings, and stair treads. Using materials as uniformly as possible can improve the conditions for later separation and return of the materials used to the appropriate recycling streams.

CLASSEN is currently conducting a comprehensive feasibility study on the international implementation of the new production concept. The study focuses on key investment and location factors—ranging from raw material availability and energy costs to scaling potential, as well as geopolitical developments and trade policy conditions such as tariffs. At the same time, the company is evaluating various partnership models to scale the technology internationally and make it applicable to different markets.

“In our view, polypropylene offers excellent potential for the development of high-performance, PVC-free flooring. With our new production process, we have taken an important step toward offering PP-based solutions that are more economically competitive in the future,” says Céline Quervel, Managing Director of Sales and Marketing at CLASSEN.