How do you stop dirt from being tracked inside two of the UK’s most popular shopping destinations?
Luxury department store Selfridges needed a highly effective, slip-resistant entrance mat that would stop dirt and moisture in its tracks.
The problem
The Selfridges stores in Birmingham’s famous Bull Ring and in Manchester’s Trafford Centre are visited daily by a huge number of shoppers. The Birmingham store presented an additional challenge: the store entrance is accessed via an external walkway that’s open to the elements and is often wet and dirty. Both stores needed to find high performance entrance matting that would remove dirt and moisture at the point of entry, plus be quick and easy to install during the store’s closing hours.
The checklist
- Removes moisture and dirt from shoes
- Reduces associated cleaning and maintenance costs
- Withstands extremely high levels of pedestrian traffic, and be heel- and wheel-proof
- Easy to cut to fit on site and quick to install without any advance templating
The solution
Plastex Frontrunner Plus was the perfect solution for a department store of this size and heritage. Slip resistant, wheel- and heel-proof, the matting has an aggressive tread pattern that scrapes shoes and wheels clean, plus heavy-duty absorbent carpet inserts to remove and dry any moisture. This reduces cleaning intervals, extends the life of floor finishes and keeps Selfridges looking stylish for longer.
During installation, Frontrunner Plus can be quickly cut to fit any shape, such as within revolving doors, inside mat wells or over irregularly shaped areas. For Selfridges this was a huge benefit, because the matting needed to be laid around several irregularly shaped columns – and the whole installation process had to happen during the store’s closing hours.
Quote:
Steve Jones, facilities manager, Birmingham Selfridges:
“This entrance matting is really effective at cleaning shoes. This makes it easier to keep the interior floors clean which ensures the shop is looking great and reduces the associated cleaning and maintenance costs.”

To find out more about Plastex and Frontrunner, follow the links below: