Beverly, W.Va.—AHF Products announced a consolidation of manufacturing facilities to better service customers. As a result, the company will close its solid hardwood flooring manufacturing facility in Warren, Ark., on September 27. Production will be moved to the AHF facility here, the largest solid hardwood flooring plant in North America, and the AHF West Plains, Missouri plant.
“It was a difficult decision because closing a plant impacts people and their local towns,” said AHF Products president and CEO, Brian Carson. “We are extremely grateful for the dedication and service of all the employees over the years since the plant has been in operation.” The 130 employees working at the Warren plant will have employment for the next 60 days. During that time, AHF will be providing career counseling and working with several local companies to help the displaced workers find other employment.
This decision is said to align with AHF’s vertical integration strategy, including its recent purchase of two sawmills in West Virginia. This change to AHF’s manufacturing footprint comes after extensive internal and external market analysis to align with the company’s ongoing efforts to enhance its solid hardwood business. In addition to the sawmills, AHF invested over $25 million in its Beverly and West Plains plants to increase its capacities and capabilities as well as leverage the close proximity of these plants to both the lumber supply and customer base.
“Although difficult, we believe this strategic move is necessary to best service our customers,” Carson said. “While we are indefinitely idling the plant, our plan is to retain ownership of the facility, which will allow us to restart it; however, we do not foresee this happening soon.” This idling is being treated as a plant closing and notices were provided as required by the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act (“WARN”).
AHF Products says it is well situated to continue its growth trajectory through continued innovation and industry-leading customer service. With this plant closure, the company will encompass 12 plants, with 11 manufacturing facilities in the U.S. and one in Cambodia—including two solid wood and three engineered wood plants, three resilient plants and two porcelain plants. With its acquisition of two sawmills in West Virginia, AHF is augmenting the supply of lumber to the company’s solid wood flooring manufacturing facilities. Additionally, four domestic distribution facilities serve customers through a multi-channel strategy that includes dealers, home centers and distributors.
“As the leader in hardwood flooring, we continue to invest in all our hardwood manufacturing facilities to increase capacities, efficiencies and to innovate new products for our customers,” Carson said. “We are bullish about solid hardwood. In West Virginia, for example, we are upgrading the front end of all the finishing lines in the plant, and we have also completely retooled our milling operations.”
AHF Products manufactures 100% of its solid hardwood flooring in the USA, along with a range of engineered hardwood flooring, resilient and tile flooring. The company is said to have some of the most recognizable flooring brands in the industry—including the recently acquired Crossville brand, as well as Armstrong Flooring, Bruce, Hartco, LM Flooring, Robbins, HomerWood, Hearthwood and Capella brands, among others.