Featured Flooring News

Outstanding five-year performance secures repeat order for 3M’s Nomad entrance matting.

Waterside Shopping Centre Case Study Report

The issue

Like any major shopping complex, Lincoln’s Waterside Shopping Centre needs to ensure a great retail experience for the 87,000 visitors who pass through its doors each week. This includes preventing slips and falls at the Centre’s entrances where rain-swept and muddy exterior pathways give way to shiny stone floors.

“The Centre is open 362 days of the year and with Terrazzo stone tile floors throughout we need to ensure that our entrance matting removes dirt and water efficiently from visitors’ shoes,” said Paul Claxton of the Centre’s management company, Interserve. “Preventing slips and falls is an essential part of our health and safety policy.”

The solution

Key to the decision on new matting for the Waterside entrance was the Centre’s previous experience with 3M’s Nomad Optima 8800 entrance matting.

Five years ago this was fitted to the Arena entrance since when there have been no reported incidences of visitors losing their footing due to water transfer from the outside.

While this record made Nomad Optima 8800 matting the natural front runner for the Waterside entrance, Paul Claxton stressed that cross-comparisons with other products were still necessary to ensure the 3M product was the right choice.

“We went to the marketplace for competitive quotes and looked at various factors – price, longevity, performance and aesthetics,” Paul continued. “3M’s Nomad Optima 8800 ticked all the boxes.

“Not only have we been very impressed with its performance in the Arena entrance, which has a long slope, but we retested its water absorption and retention against other systems and, even after five years, this was still outstanding.”

Jim Hughes is Centre Manager for the property owners. He said, “Looks and durability in areas of high footfall are very important too, especially from an owner’s perspective. We pride ourselves on the Centre’s appearance as we want the first impressions of our shoppers to be good ones.

“Entrance matting that retains its visual look over time despite hard, daily usage is a must. Nomad Optima 8800 matches this requirement exactly – it’s attractively designed and easy to maintain.”

The outcome

This Nomad Optima 8800 application at the Waterside Shopping Centre:

• removes dirt and absorbs excess water to keep shoppers
• safely on their feet
• affords long-lasting protection to stone flooring
• adds visual appeal to the entrances

3M’s Nomad Optima 8800 entrance matting has been fitted to the main Waterside entrance of the Waterside Shopping Centre in Lincoln city centre following its outstanding performance covering the Centre’s Arena entrance. Here the matting has withstood a weekly footfall of 87,000 visitors since its original installation five years ago, and continues to look and perform as well as ever.

About Nomad Optima 8800 Entrance Matting

Part of 3M's extensive range of matting products, Nomad Optima 8800 is aluminium framed and utilises 3M's Aqua textile, a unique combination of fine and course loop fibres for superior removal and retention of moisture and dirt to give safer, cleaner entrances.

This makes for a superior performance which can be measured in reduced cleaning costs, less floor damage and fewer slips, trips and falls (and potential compensation claims). The use (and cost) of additional drop down mats can be rendered unnecessary.