Retail locations selling food and beverage produce require floors that can create a clean, efficient and visually appealing space - however these flooring characteristics need to be maintained in the face of large bodies of people, frequent cleaning and exposure to the organic acids, sugars and other corrosives present in the produce.

In the shop fronts of both the butchery store Meat World and the supermarket Apple Tree, the seamless resin terrazzo floor finish Mondéco Earth was installed. This system has been designed to create a durable yet highly decorative surface, with visually appealing colours and glittering aggregates that work with the interior design scheme to convey a pleasant and welcoming environment.

Apple Tree installed 1,250m2 of Mondéco Earth in a cool, contemporary almond colour and Meat World installed 550m2 of the finish in a similar shade. Flint and granite aggregates were added into the resin system to create an eye-catching, glittering effect.  

It was important for both stores that the floor constantly conveyed a sanitary and unblemished appearance to attract customers and reassure them of the location’s quality. Mondéco Earth was chosen thanks to its ability to combine attractive aesthetics with an easy to clean finish that would help to keep the floor looking its best despite the scuffs, scrapes and stains that a high level of foot traffic, spillages of food produce and heavily laden trolleys would inevitably inflict on the floor.

To avoid bacteria build up in the back of house areas, Meat World and Apple Tree drew on the antimicrobial enhanced Flowfresh range of polyurethane floors. Flowfresh has been designed to actively minimise the risk of contamination incidents by forming an impervious ultra-hygienic floor area that doesn’t harbour dirt, dust, grime or bacteria.

Every Flowfresh system has the antibacterial agent Polygiene® homogenously distributed throughout its polyurethane make-up. This empowers the floor coating with the ability to eliminate up to 99.9% of bacteria in contact with the floor. In fact, the ability of Flowfresh to keep food facilities free from contaminants led to the range attaining HACCP International certification in 2015.

1,000m2 of Flowfresh RT was applied in Meat World’s back of house areas. This was the ideal solution for the store as, with large quantities of raw meat present, maintaining a contaminant free environment is a top priority. Over 1,000m2 of Flowfresh flooring was applied in Apple Tree’s back of house areas, including 700m2 of Flowfresh RT (6mm) in light blue and 350m2of a signal green Flowfresh MF (4mm) finish.

It took four weeks to refurbish these floor areas in the Meadowdale Mall. During this time Flowcrete South Africa’s approved applicator had to cope with a lack of lighting and water. To solve these problems a generator and a water tanker were brought to the site so that the flooring installation could continue unhindered.

Thanks to the durability of these systems, Meat World and Apple Tree will be able to maintain appealing, functional and hygienic floors for an extended period of time.