The Wellmade production plant in Cartersville, Ga., is open and fully operational, and the company is back to work filling orders for customers. That’s the message from Wellmade ownership in the wake of the March 26 FBI raid of its manufacturing facility as part of a multi-year investigation into allegations of labor trafficking.
“Wellmade is committed to providing value-added services and leading-edge products to our partners and customers,” said Dick Quinlan, who was elevated from senior VP of sales and marketing to interim executive vice president of sales and operations as part of a corporate restructuring. “We are fully cooperating with relevant authorities by request regarding the investigation and have minimized disruptions to our factory and operations.”
In his new role, Quinlan will oversee the daily operations of Wellmade to ensure smooth execution of business strategies and processes from manufacturing and production to overall efficiency and company-wide productivity. In addition to leading plant operations at Wellmade’s Cartersville facility, he will also develop strategic goals and objectives to drive top- and bottom-line sales.
On March 26, agents from the FBI, Homeland Security Investigations and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation executed search warrants against Wellmade Industries and several homes in the county believed to be employee housing. Federal officials allege the suspects used fraud and coercion to recruit immigrant workers, many from China, and subjected them to harsh working conditions for little pay. The FBI brought in at least 20 linguists and a victim specialist to help the potential victims.
The owner, Zhu (George) Chen, and his nephew, Jiayi Jia Chen, were arrested and face charges of trafficking persons for labor servitude.
The factory reopened on March 28.
Wellmade, an OEM supplier to the flooring industry, provides its patented HDPC rigid core vinyl flooring to a growing network of flooring manufacturers, distributors and specialty retailers as well as home centers and large channel retailers.
The company said its state-of-the-art facility is largely automated and regularly audited for compliance, best practices and quality control.
