FloorCoveringNews

Salem, N.J. —In a move that broadens its U.S. manufacturing base and global reach, Mannington Mills announced today that it has acquired Amtico International.

“The acquisition of Amtico is an extremely exciting development for Mannington, as it not only brings a world class organization into the Mannington family, but also expands the company’s global market reach as well as the scope of its domestic manufacturing capabilities,” said Russell Grizzle, President and CEO of Mannington Mills, Inc.

Salem, N.J.— Mannington Mills announced that it is expanding distribution area for The R.A. Siegel Company in the southeast United States.  Effective March 5, 2012, R.A. Siegel will assume distribution for territory currently served by Walton Wholesale Corporation.

The R.A. Siegel Company is a family-owned company with locations in Atlanta, Georgia and Groveland, Florida.  It has been in floor covering distribution since 1950 and a Mannington distributor since 1997.

Salem, N.J.— Mannington Mills recently announced that on February 27^th, the NLRB officially certified the results of the IBEW union election, which was held at the company on February 16^th.   Accordingly, the NLRB certified that the required majority of ballots were not cast in favor of the IBEW, and Mannington remains union-free. 

ECORE International announces Thomas S. Davis, retired president and CEO of the New Jersey-based flooring company, Mannington Mills, Inc., has joined the ECORE Board of Directors.

At Mannington, Davis helped develop a management team and culture that is recognized as one of the best in the flooring industry by customers, suppliers, employees and even competitors. In addition, he also served as chairman of the Resilient Floor Covering Institute for 2008 and 2009. During that period, the organization developed a new strategic direction more in sync with the needs of the industry and its members. Davis joined Mannington after a 23-year tenure with Milliken & Company in Spartanburg, Georgia. Prior he served as an officer in the United States Army and earned his Bachelors and Masters Degrees in chemistry at Furman University.

Salem, N.J.— The union election held at Mannington Mills today has resulted in an overwhelming and resounding ‘no’, which indicates that Mannington will continue to be union-free. The results of this election were:   204 votes against the union; 70 votes for the union; and 25 challenged ballots.  This result is pending NLRB official certification, which is expected to come in the next two weeks.

Salem, N.J. — Workers at Mannington Mills will vote next week on whether they want union representation. While there have been at least a dozen previous attempts by unions to gain a foothold at the flooring manufacturer during its 97-year history — the last about 30 years ago — none have been successful.

Dallas — Being green is no longer a trend or fad – it’s a way of life. This was dramatically demonstrated last week at the recently completed SURFACES | StonExpo/Marmomacc Americas (S2). For the first time, S2 partnered with Mountain Re-Source Center and Tile Partners for Humanity on a recycling initiative focused on post-show product donations at the close of the three-day event, held January 24-26 in Las Vegas, Nevada at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center. The outstanding results of this inaugural program speak for themselves and exceeded all expectations.

Salem, N.J. —Mannington Mills recently announced Dealers’ Supply North (DSN) will expand its current territory and begin to provide service into New York.

DSN, headquartered in Columbus, Ohio, has been a Mannington distributor since 2001.  Its expansion into New York will include a full stocking warehouse located in the Greater Syracuse area for quick and efficient servicing of the region.

New product investments, international business are among the initiatives

Russell Grizzle

The new year brought a change at the top of Mannington Mills. Longtime CEO Tom Davis announced his retirement some time ago, and his hand-picked replacement, Russell Grizzle, took the reins Jan. 2. Grizzle, the former president of Milliken’s global flooring business, had been groomed for the position for two years, so suffice to say he is more than ready to take Mannington to new heights. Grizzle recently sat down with FCNews editorial director Steven Feldman to discuss his views and goals for the future.

By Louis Iannaco

Much like last year, while most tile producers did not see economics conditions in 2011 rebound as quickly as they would have liked, they continue to make investments in technology and look to do more of this going into 2012. Digital printing technology has made a huge impact on what manufacturers can create, and it seems as though they’ll continue this trend moving forward. Mills are also being challenged from abroad, with an increase in imports from places like China only adding to pressure on pricing.

SALEM, N.J.—Mannington’s Adura LockSolid luxury plank flooring is being featured on “Run My Renovation” on the DIY Network. The premise of the show is visitors to the DIY Network website vote on the product choices for a remodeling job, and then the homeowners, along with a contractor, do the work. The episode features a basement re-do that takes the space from boring to beautiful using a variety of products, including Mannington floors.

Part 1 of 2

Sandy Mishkin, president of CCA Global Partners, likes to say Mannington Mills is a company that answers “Yes” to initial queries whereas other suppliers respond in the negative.

Salem, N.J.—Mannington Mills hosted the 8^th annual “Art is Cool” reception last evening at its corporate headquarters in Salem, N.J.  The event, which is part of Mannington’s participation in the “Partners of Salem County” program, recognizes high school artists for their talent and is hosted by Mannington’s Chairman of the Board, Keith Campbell.

AMELIA ISLAND, FLA.—Nine years ago the thought of recycling carpet back into itself or another product was minimal at best. Then the Carpet America Recovery Effort (CARE) was born and, since that time, more than 1.7 billion pounds of post-consumer carpet (PCC) has been recycled, with an additional 300 million pounds diverted from the nation’s landfills.

Salem, N.J.—Beautiful floors, beautiful homes, beautiful world: that is the essence of what Mannington hopes to capture in its first consumer blog, “At Home,” blog.manningtonathome.com.

WASHINGTON—The Coalition for American Hardwood Parity (CAHP), an association of U.S. manufacturers of engineered wood flooring, filed an unfair trade petition on Oct. 21 regarding imports of multi-layered wood products from China.

The petition, filed with the U.S. Department of Commerce and the International Trade Commission (ITC), asserts that imports of the product are sold in the United States at dumped prices, and that Chinese manufacturers have gained an unfair competitive advantage.

Salem, N.J.—Mannington has announced it will implement a 5% price increase on all “better” and “best” collection residential resilient sheet products, effective on shipments starting Nov. 29.

Salem, N.J.—Mannington Mills is entering its second phase of the solar energy system expansion at its New Jersey manufacturing facilities. The expansion, scheduled for completion this calendar year, will increase to almost one megawatt and extend the panels over a total of seven rooftops, occupying three and one-half acres of roof space. More than two acres of solar photovoltaic panels are installed on site, avoiding more than 217 metric tones, or 478,000 lbs, of CO2 greenhouse gases per year since operations began in late 2008, considered the largest in the flooring industry.

As the saying goes, every cloud has a silver lining and this rings true in floor covering. A decidedly negative economic state found a ray of light in the resurgent sales of resilient flooring and carpet. On the decline for much of the early 21st century, these two categories have been consistently gaining market share throughout the financial downturn and beckoned sales in a climate where other categories suffered mightily.

“Resilient is on the rebound,” said David Sheehan, vice president of resilient business at Mannington Mills, “due in large part to the movement of the consumer toward products that are practical and pragmatic in today’s economy.”

Raleigh, N.C.—Pergo announced it entered into a license agreement with Mannington Mills on May 15, granting access to Pergo and Classen patents for fold-down joints. This allows Mannington to sell any of the Vålinge variations on the PerfectFold technology, including 5G, 5G+ and 5G-S.

Salem, N.J.—Mannington Mills has rescinded its approved supplier relationship with Abbey Carpet and Floor due to a dispute over rebate policy. The decision is a result of “contradicting understandings of commitment” within the partnership, Mannington said.

Mannington is upholding a long-standing policy that rebates are paid only to retailers who maintain updated, current displays in their showrooms. Anything less and the dealer is not representing the Mannington program in its best light, the company believes.

MARCO ISLAND, FLA.—Though the commercial market continues to plod through the recession as its residential counterpart starts the recovery process, optimism was in the air at the annual meeting of the Starnet Worldwide Commercial Flooring Partnership.

While most admit a light will not come, unfortunately, until 2011/2012, they feel as if the segment has pretty much bottomed out and this year may even be better than 2009.

Under the theme, “The Power of Partnership,” all but six of Starnet’s 172 members were in attendance, and this feeling of hope resonated throughout the membership as well as a packed room of vendor partners who confirmed projects that had been put on hold are starting to free up.

What do the dramatic graphics adorning the various buildings, buses and vehicles at the 2010 Olympic Winter Games in Vancouver, Canada, have to do with flooring? Everything, if you’re Mannington Mills.
Thanks to a partnership with 3M Canada, supplier of the graphics, and the Vancouver Organizing Committee, once the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games are concluded, the material—about 200,000 square feet or approximately the area of three football fields—will be shipped to Mannington’s head- quarters in Salem, N.J., where it will be turned into a key ingredient in a mixture used to make high recycled content Premium Tile flooring, which already contains post-consumer recycled content from waste streams, including dry- wall and VCT reclaimed from renovation sites.