Salem, N.J.—Mannington Mills has signed an agreement to sell its vinyl composition tile (VCT) business to Armstrong Flooring. The transaction is expected to close in the 2nd quarter of 2017.
This transaction is an adjustment to Mannington’s product portfolio, according to Russell Grizzle, president and CEO of Mannington Mills. “The decision to sell the VCT business is in line with our long-term growth strategy and opens up opportunities for us to invest in high-growth high-profit markets and categories.”
VCT is designed for the heavy traffic experienced in schools, grocery stores and other commercial applications. Mannington entered the market in 1990, with manufacturing located in Salem, N.J. The site is also home to Mannington’s headquarters as well as all commercial and residential sheet vinyl manufacturing operations, which will continue to operate as usual.
“Mannington’s successful history is based on growing our business through a combination of innovation, customer focus and investment in opportunities in mid- to upper-end flooring product categories,” Grizzle said. “We remain committed to a strong U.S. manufacturing base, to our surrounding communities and to our valued distributor partners and customers.”
Armstrong Flooring president and CEO Don Maier shared the company’s enthusiasm toward the transaction. “It gives us a good opportunity to increase revenue within the well-structured VCT category which has historically generated above-average profitability within our product portfolio. We expect this transaction to be accretive to earnings in 2018 as we drive profitability through improved capacity utilization and scale using our existing facilities and distribution system. We have a strong history and deep expertise in VCT which makes this acquisition consistent with our strategy to support our legacy product lines while simultaneously investing in innovation and new growth initiatives to help us realize our medium-term goals.”
