SAVVY RETAILERS ATTENDING the ICFA Preview Show™in July were in search of remarkable and marketable products to attract consumers to showrooms in spring 2016. Those who found their way to Veranda Classics by Foremost discovered TerraFab—and, as Danny Jelley, senior vice president of product development, states, “Customers’ first reactions to the product are exactly the same as my own first impression: It looks real; this cannot be fake.”

Veranda Classics’ TerraFab precisely imitates the surface textures of wood, stone, concrete, leather, woven wicker, metal (including cast aluminum), and almost any other surface texture that can be form molded and reproduced. Simply explained, TerraFab is completely waterproof and durable beyond expectations due to its proprietary formula of naturally occurring, inorganic mineral compounds, which are mixed with brine and layered with fiberglass for strength. To make the panels, the material is then processed and cold pressed on sheets of fiberglass in a machine.

“TerraFab is the most exciting new material in my 30 years of experience,” Jelley says. “TerraFab allows our design team virtually endless possibilities of recreating both natural and man-made elements to incorporate into desirable, almost maintenance-free outdoor collections. Our TerraFab firepits and tabletops have aluminum substrates, which are fully encapsulated in the TerraFab compound for maximum quality and strength.”

Regarding retailers’ overall reaction to TerraFab at the July show, Neil Streitfeld, sales manager, adds, “Without fail, retailers reached out to touch the TerraFab pieces, which appear astonishingly real, especially the fauxwood tabletops and firepits—but the price points for this amazing technology are what will put us in showrooms across the country in 2016.”

TerraFab is fire, water, and chemical resistant. It has only a fraction of the weight of the element it imitates. TerraFab is environmentally safe and causes no impact upon disposal.

“Our challenge is always to engage the customer with the unexpected, and TerraFab will certainly be incorporated into many Veranda Classics designs, going forward— there are no limits or boundaries—and we like that a lot,” Jelley says. For more information, contact Streitfeld at (561) 704-1964, visit Veranda Classics’ new Merchandise Mart showroom (1650) at Casual Market Chicago on September 16 through 19, or sign up online at www.VerandaClassics.com.