50 Years and Counting of
Flooring Innovation
The year 2019 is a milestone year for KBAC Flooring as it marks the 50th anniversary of a company that
has come a long way since April 1, 1969, when it started operating as Kevin Bates Flooring from a small
shop at 128 Marshall Street in the Johannesburg CBD.
D
uring those early years, the
company had to move a few times
to cope with rapid growth spurred
on by what were then landmark flooring
contracts for massive projects of the
era such as:
• Carlton Centre in Johannesburg – then
the tallest building in Africa.
• Eskom’s Megawatt Park headquarters.
• SABC head offices in Auckland Park.
• Johannesburg Civic Centre.
• JSE in the Johannesburg CBD.
• Thousands of houses then built by
late 20th Century major developers/
contractors, Schachat Cullum and
Wimpey Homes.
Now, after 50 years of professionalism,
the company’s client portfolio includes
dozens of prestigious high-rise buildings
in both Gauteng and the Western Cape,
as well as exports to parts of sub-
Saharan Africa.
Albert Carpets, the 38-year-old Cape
Town arm of the KBAC Flooring Group, has
for decades been synonymous with quality
flooring in the Western Cape. The Albert
family-owned, Carpetland, started as a
furniture business and evolved into a carpet
contractor and eventually a wholesale
flooring business. It is now a household
name in the Cape having supplied and
installed flooring at projects such as
the Mount Nelson Hotel, Woolworths
head office, and Fancourt Golf Estate.
Albert Carpets has always had a strong
relationship with KBAC and in 2010 the
two respected flooring companies merged
to become KBAC Flooring.
KBAC’s corporate responsibilit y
covers social commitment in the form
of staff skills advancement and study
bursaries, donation of uplifted carpeting
to worthy charities, and an ever-increasing
quest for sustainability that includes
selecting suppliers with a similar passion
for the preservation of our planet. These
‘green’ producers of residential and
commercial flooring include:
Interface: the world’s largest producer
of modular flooring and pioneer of carbon
neutrality in flooring manufacture;
Bolon: the Swedish flooring producer
which turned reclaimed waste into the
world’s first woven vinyl flooring;
Ege: a Danish eco award-winning
flooring producer driven by innovation and
sustainability; and
The Vanguard Collection: an exclu-
sive range of luxury and environmentally-
friendly flooring ideal for SA homes
and offices.
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