Insights

From the factory side.

Posts from the Sovern Group page and issues of Factory Direct, our newsletter for people who buy flooring, decking and wall panels by the container. Each one is dated: stock and duty move, so check the current position with us before you buy.

A full-height SPC marble-look wall panel, an acoustic slat panel, twelve of our 21 trim profiles and eight of our 36 display stand designs. The panels, the trims and the display stands, in one order.

Sovern Group · 30 October 2026

Wall panels: one sheet floor to ceiling, trims and stands in the same order

One SPC wall panel from floor to ceiling: 2,400 to 2,900 mm long, any length to order, in 600 or 1,200 mm widths.

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Three flexible stone finishes installed: Platinum Travertine, Interlace on a curved wall, and Thin Line Stone Pro. 108 finishes, each made to bend.

Sovern Group · 29 October 2026

Flexible stone: 108 finishes that follow a curve

108 flexible stone finishes, from travertine and rammed earth to rust, charcoal wood and woven, and each one is made to bend.

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Split brick flexible stone on two finished exterior facades and a close-up of the A surface. A new face for the wall you already have.

Sovern Group · 28 October 2026

Flexible stone: a new face for the wall you already have

Renovating a building does not always mean taking the old wall down. Our 108 flexible stone finishes give the existing wall a new face instead.

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Close-up of a white marble-look surface with a dark vein. High-gloss marble for wet rooms and showers. Factory Direct, a newsletter from Sovern Group.

Factory Direct newsletter · 28 October 2026

High-gloss marble for wet rooms and showers: LSPC wall panels

Marble in a bathroom has always meant stone, a tiler, a wet trade and a wait.

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Duty on every 100,000 of vinyl flooring: Canada 6,500 from China and nothing from Malaysia; UK 6,000 from China and nothing from Malaysia, as at 12 October 2026.

Sovern Group · 27 October 2026

Canada and the UK: duty per 100,000

On every 100,000 of vinyl flooring entered into Canada, China-made pays 6,500 in duty and Malaysian-made pays nothing. Into the UK it is 6,000 against nothing.

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Factory production line. November and December are filling; lead time 15 to 30 days from sample approval.

Sovern Group · 26 October 2026

This month at our factories

This month at our factories, for anyone planning orders before the new year: November and December production is filling.

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Six product categories from six Sovern Group catalogues: LVT flooring, IronLite SPC, WPC decking, wall panels, flexible stone and outdoor furniture.

Sovern Group · 23 October 2026

Six catalogues, 356 products, one export desk

356 products across six catalogues, all made to order in our factories, each under one code you can quote back to us.

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Pallets in our factory warehouse. 3,140 square metres of IronLite Core in one 20 foot container, about 1.4 times our conventional 6.5 mm SPC on real loads.

Sovern Group · 21 October 2026

IronLite: square metres per 20' container

3,140 m² of 6.5 mm IronLite Core in one 20' container. Our own conventional 6.5 mm SPC loads 2,210 m². Same box, about 1.4x the floor.

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US duty on every 100,000 US dollars of SPC or LVT: 42,800 from China, 15,300 from Malaysia, as at 12 October 2026.

Sovern Group · 20 October 2026

US duty: US$42,800 or US$15,300 per US$100,000

On every US$100,000 of SPC or LVT entered into the US, China-made pays US$42,800 in duty and Malaysian-made pays US$15,300. The gap is US$27,500.

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Fourteen colourways of one 5 mm SPC build, ready to ship in full-container quantities.

Sovern Group · 16 October 2026

14 colourways of one 5 mm SPC build, ready to ship

14 colourways of one 5 mm SPC build, ready to ship in full-container quantities, with stock behind most colours for the repeat orders.

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US$3,800 a container: what the origin line on your SPC invoice costs in 2026. Factory Direct, a newsletter from Sovern Group.

Factory Direct newsletter · 15 October 2026

US$3,800 a container: what the origin line on your SPC invoice costs in 2026

Put the same rigid core floor in the same container and ship it into the United States twice: once made in China, once made in Malaysia.

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Herringbone floor. Your name on the box, our line behind it.

Sovern Group · 14 October 2026

Your name on the box, our line behind it

Your name on the box. Our line behind it.

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Warm oak plank floor. About 86,000 square metres of SPC, LVT and WPC stock, ready to ship.

Sovern Group · 11 October 2026

Stock, ready to ship this week

Ready to ship this week, FOB Shanghai. First quality, boxed, from our own lines.

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How buying flooring factory-direct actually works. Factory Direct, a newsletter from Sovern Group.

Factory Direct newsletter · 1 October 2026

How buying flooring factory-direct actually works, from first message to landed container

Most people who ask about buying flooring direct from a factory are not asking about price.

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Open plan kitchen and living space with a greige floor. Sovern Group: five specialist factories, one counterparty.

Sovern Group · 30 September 2026

The group, and why it exists

A hotel fit out needs flooring, wall panels and decking.

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Factory production hall. A forty foot high cube does not care what is inside it.

Sovern Group · 28 September 2026

One container, more than one product

A forty foot high cube does not care what is inside it. It holds what it holds, and it costs what it costs, whether that is one product or six.

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Herringbone walnut floor beside a fireplace. Engineered wood: keep the timber, lose the movement.

Sovern Group · 25 September 2026

Engineered wood: Keep the timber. Lose the movement

Real wood moves. That is not a fault, it is what timber does.

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Fireproof building materials: fire rated on its own means nothing. A class, a standard and a test report do.

Sovern Group · 23 September 2026

Fireproof building materials

Fire performance is the one specification where "near enough" has a body count, and it is also the one most often bought on a phrase rather than a document.

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Deck terrace above a sea cliff. Every decking complaint arrives two summers late.

Sovern Group · 21 September 2026

Every decking complaint arrives two summers late

Every decking complaint is the same complaint, arriving two summers late. It moved, it faded, or it got too hot to stand on.

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Factory warehouse with finished stock on pallets. First quality, already made, no production lead time.

Sovern Group · 18 September 2026

Leftover stock, ready to ship

Ask a factory for a container and the first number you get is not a price, it is a lead time. Six weeks, eight, twelve into a busy season.

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Textured soft stone surfacing on an interior wall. Strata: it reads as stone, and it bends because the backing does.

Sovern Group · 16 September 2026

Strata, flexible soft stone

Real stone has one problem that has nothing to do with how it looks. It weighs what it weighs, it breaks on the way, and it will not go round a column.

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