Nearly five months after his appointment as chief financial officer of AHF Products in the fall of 2024, Brent Emore was thrust into the role of interim CEO and, shortly thereafter, full-time CEO. This following the departure of Brian Carson, who held that position for six years before taking on a role outside the flooring industry.
Emore brings his own management style, vision and brand of leadership, along with more than two decades of executive experience in the flooring and building products industries. Prior to joining AHF in 2024, he held multiple senior leadership roles at Mohawk Industries, including various general manager positions and the CFO of the company’s North America Flooring segment. During his time there, he led financial transformation efforts that enabled business agility, championed strategic product expansion and helped guide successful acquisitions.
FCNews co-publisher Steven Feldman and Reginald Tucker, executive editor, posed a host of questions for Emore as he seeks to chart a new path and execute his vision for AHF Products moving forward.
Following are excerpts of that conversation.
What was the first major move you made after taking on the role of CEO full time
Implementing a philosophical change. The business had been on an incredible journey since 2019. When I joined AHF about a year ago, I knew I joined a strong company with deep manufacturing capability, an experienced leadership team and some of the most respected brands in the category with Bruce, Armstrong Flooring and Robbins. Twelve months in, I am just as energized as when I joined.
Given my financial and strategic background, the main objective was to provide a footprint or blueprint, if you will, for what I’ll call disciplined and margin-focused growth. At the end of the day, we’re here to excite our customers with innovative hard surface products, have fun doing it while also growing the business. It’s all based upon simplification through focus.
It was a philosophical change for AHF, but I’m proud to tell you today it’s really become the platform for action and execution, which is exciting. It drove alignment and accountability across the business. It has driven a unique, intellectual curiosity into what we’re doing, why we’re doing it and the impact it’s having. We’ve done well in a weak market, and so much so that I’ve continued to add what I’ll call “lanes” to it. It’s about focusing on being disciplined, maintaining healthy margins, growth, keeping it simple and executing toward targeted outcomes.
Are you getting buy-in from the teams on the new mindset and your agenda?
Yes, I believe so. The proof is in the pudding when people are bringing new ideas to you, right? Things they want to accomplish, things they want to do. A good example is how do we leverage new technology to help us along this journey. And you see that manifest itself as people actively and healthily debate solutions and outcomes over time. It’s one of the key guiding principles of the role. It’s strategy, it’s talent, it’s culture, it’s vision. And at the end of the day, this backdrop combines all of those things. The entire organization understands it, and they know what we’re trying to accomplish through it. At AHF, our goal is to always outperform. Our customers are at the core of everything we do, and our strategy prioritizes strong partnerships, nimble execution, product innovation and both organic and acquisition-driven growth.
You talked about being up in a down market, improving sales and profits and, ultimately, morale. Those are some bright spots. What are some of the challenges you’ve encountered along the way?
To be clear, I don’t want to overstate things. The business isn’t growing by leaps and bounds; that would be a misrepresentation as to what’s happening. We’re just moving the business in a direction that’s beneficial for AHF. So I would tell you, generally speaking, we’re kind of “in the zone” relative to the competitive set from a performance perspective as it relates to sales or revenues. We acquired the Cartersville, Ga., rigid core LVT plant, so that means we’ll now control our destiny in the SPC product category; it fills a major gap for us. But going in, we knew it was going to be a tough year. 2023, ’24 and ’25 played out in very challenging ways. You can only focus on what you can control. We’ve done some really, really good things to set the business up for success when that spark eventually comes.
Another example is how we got back into the unfinished wood flooring business. We have the capacity to address it, and we have the brands to leverage it. When we’ve been successfully selling it in the market, it just opens up other opportunities for us, especially in the premium space. It allows us to fill voids in our capacity and drive margins across our entire wood portfolio.
At the same time, we’re all aware that big-ticket residential replacement/remodel is challenging. The major home centers have said on multiple occasions that big-ticket remodels are down somewhere north of 10% on renovations above $20,000, which is inherently the space we all play in. So it’s been tough in that regard.
We have been very deliberate in resetting our cost footprint. In recent months we wound down our engineered operation in Somerset, Ky. And going back to the Cartersville SPC facility, we effectively took out a rotary engineered platform that provided less relevant capabilities for today’s market and shifted it to SPC/LVT. So, a lot of good things are happening for us. I’m just positioning the business for the spark—when it comes, we think it’ll be really good for us because of what we’re doing now.
Expand upon the former Wellmade facility that you acquired last fall. How are you upgrading technology in that respect?
There’s going to be a tremendous amount of capital investment flowing. Initially, the biggest thing is resetting the operation, the AHF way. We did take the plant down for 10 days post-acquisition. That plant is really focused on a unique category within SPC (HDPC) because of its higher performing characteristics. We’ll be focusing on products featuring premium construction and better locking systems. There’s going to be about 60 SKUs that we’re going to launch at Surfaces; it’s going to be a curated assortment with new displays. We’re also going to be doing some cool things from a branding perspective. We plan to create product assortments under our flagship brands such as Armstrong Flooring, Bruce and Robbins, to name a few, and we already have new customers requesting private-label programs.
What do all these improvements mean for customers, especially in light of the tariffs on competitive imported products?
We have relationships that we have already looked to extend and really fill the open capacity there under AHF ownership and leadership. So our goal is to sell the capacity while innovating in the space via new designs and collections. We’re elevating the branding and partnering in the domestic space because that represents a massive de-risk for our customers. They don’t have to wait three months to get product when partnering with us. We can drive directly to our customers and work with the management teams to design the products; we can see it, touch it, feel it. Customers want to see what we’re doing, how we’re doing it and why we’re doing it, and why they would want to partner with AHF’s domestic capabilities. We are managing it very actively, and I think 2026 will prove to be a nice way to get really serious about domestic SPC production.
Have you fully restaffed the plant in Cartersville?
We employ just under 100 full-time hourly workers at Cartersville under AHF leadership, and I have hired a new general manager—John Summers—who is very familiar with the space. He used to run the resilient business at Mohawk, and he was also the vice president of merchandising for flooring at Home Depot for a period of about 10 years. He knows the product.
With the addition of Cartersville, we have a U.S. presence in HDPC. We’ll be looking to expand upon our leadership in the domestic space and establish ourselves as the most complete hard surface flooring manufacturer and distributor in the U.S. We already have the Armstrong Flooring brand, so adding domestic SPC production will be a tremendous complement. Our goal is to be leader in the vinyl space, and I’m very confident that we will—it’s just a matter of time.
It’s our understanding that you’re going to be making both AHF-branded SPC as well as private-label product for other manufacturers?
Yes, that’s the intent. But I would say almost universally that’s the mindset across all our portfolios—where it makes sense, anyway. We will explore all of those options and relationships at the right times. But yes, there’s plenty of open capacity and there’s plenty of opportunity. It’s all about what works best for the customer. We have a unique relationship with all of the major home center and mass merchant flooring customers, as well as the independent retailer, and it’s through the power of our brands, quality, product innovation, service and lastly, domestic infrastructure, that drive this. You just look at that package and there’s power in that.
You also have a strong position in VCT. Can you talk about your strategy as it pertains to that product category?
That’s actually one of the most exciting product categories for AHF. It’s a tremendous product with great performance and good looks, and it performs exceptionally well in the education and hospitality spaces. Not only is it a wonderful product in the commercial space, but it’s also part of the vinyl legacy of Armstrong Flooring.
I feel like there’s been a bit of a resurgence within VCT as the product is seeing increased demand in high-traffic situations where other products had previously been used and underperformed. Customers are returning to it and recognizing that VCT is solving their problem. It’s a boomerang effect, and I think we’re going to have a good couple of years in the VCT category, so we’ll continue to invest there with new sizes and shapes.
Our commercial team is exceptionally adept at placing it and selling it, and it complements our LVT capabilities.
Earlier you mentioned winding down the Somerset facility. Can you talk about that decision in terms of: a) How that positions you to be more profitable; and b) If you have reallocated some assets or production to other facilities?
The decision to close the Somerset facility was a tough one because there is real impact there. But I think it’s a best-case situation for everyone involved. We have two other engineered facilities, including Only, Tenn., and our only international location, which is in Cambodia. Invariably, a very significant portion of Somerset production will transition to Cambodia where we will obviously still evaluate sourcing opportunities. But at the end of the day, we have the capacity to absorb it. From a cost profile, Somerset was a higher cost asset for us. We are now transitioning that demand to a more capable, lower-cost asset where a lower labor footprint improves margins while still providing the curated assortments that excite our customers. In the long run, I think it’ll be good for us.
Outside of the U.S., we’re still seeing a lot of global interest—which bodes well for our Cambodia facility; it’s probably the best facility in the region. We look forward to how we’re going to be utilizing that plant over the course of the next two to three years, but at least we have some finality on the tariff situation. At the end of the day our service levels won’t change; in fact, I suspect they will get better.
Speaking of tariffs, wood flooring imports from the region got hit with an 18%-20% tax. How have you been able to navigate the tariff situation thus far?
It’s tough. If our costs increase, then we have to flow those costs through the system. But I know over the course of the past five years or so with all of the price increases post-COVID-19, it’s impossible to continue absorbing that and still provide high-quality products or a higher mix of products to our customers. We’re a manufacturer at the end of the day, so it’s our job to drive productivity gains to offset these things so we can still expand our margins and not pass on 100% of the cost increases—tariffs or otherwise—to our customers. We’re just not in the business of doing that. And quite frankly, if we did, we wouldn’t be around that long.
AHF in recent years also closed the solid facility in Warren, Ark., and a specialty wood plant in Titusville, Pa. At the same time, you’re investing in local sawmills to provide lumber production. How will this help fuel supply for your domestic hardwood flooring business?
The sawmills we acquired help us secure raw material supply and provide competitively priced, consistent quality materials to our facilities. Less volatility is very important for us, and all those things—when connected flawlessly—improve our cost profile and efficiencies. More importantly, it keeps market prices in a fairly consistent range. It also gives you the benefit of a cost-effective supply when things do change, because customers remember who their friends are, so to speak, when the flow isn’t that great. So that helps us stay ahead of the curve and normalizes that cost profile over the long term.
Moving beyond hardwood, let’s talk about the Crossville tile acquisition and how that’s working out for AHF.
Every acquisition is different; the integrations are never flawless. In full transparency, we’ve worked through challenges and now we are at a stage where we feel we’ve made the business stronger, and we’re going to continue to optimize the footprint. We’re leveraging the Crossville Studios. There are about 24 of them where we are introducing new premium hardwood assortments as well as Robbins products. And we’re going to have SPC going through those locations because it’s an access point for us that we didn’t have previously.
Porcelain tile is largely a commercial footprint, which gave us another product category to become more important to our national accounts, the A&D community and mainstream commercial. Those things have opened up new doors for us, and we picked up certain design resources that really gave us tremendous coverage across the entire commercial portfolio. It’s a tremendous brand, too, by the way. Crossville has a unique reputation in the market, so leveraging that portfolio with other AHF brands like Bruce and Armstrong Flooring has been great.
If you step back even further, we took the opportunity to kind of combine the commercial sales teams. So now you have the legacy Crossville team and then you have the Armstrong Flooring team and the AHF specifiers. When you put them all together in that one integrated approach, you get that unique coverage in the market that makes you stronger, because you’re talking about your different brands more, and your people are comfortable selling everything rather than just one thing.
The only “thing” missing from the commercial portfolio is carpet tile. Is that in the plans?
I’ll say this: I’m always studying the market and looking for opportunities. While carpet tile isn’t on the immediate radar, it’s not something I would ever rule out. It’s all about the right fit, the right time, the right product, the right brand and the right market coverage.
We haven’t talked about the resurging laminate flooring category. I know AHF offers laminate through a third-party supplier under different brands. Any plans on bringing laminate flooring in-house or acquiring a laminate supplier?
We don’t produce laminate internally, and there’s nothing in the immediacy of 2026 that will change in our regard.
AHF has emphasized its commitment to the retail channel. What does that look like for flooring retailers today?
When we talk about supporting the retail channel, we’re not speaking in generalities—it’s the core of our strategy at AHF. Retailers are the heartbeat of this industry, and everything we do is designed to help them win in their markets. First, our U.S. manufacturing footprint gives them real advantages—faster lead times, no tariff exposure, consistent quality and dependable service. That reliability reduces risk and helps retailers close sales with confidence. And with the industry’s broadest hard surface offering, they can present a differentiated, high-quality assortment to every customer who walks in.
Just as important, our brands carry strong consumer recognition. When shoppers already trust the name, retailers see higher close rates and stronger tickets. It makes the selling process more efficient and more profitable. We’re also investing heavily in marketing and go-to-market programs that drive demand directly to the retail floor. Our goal is simple: get more consumers asking for our products by name and walking into our partners’ showrooms ready to buy.
At the end of the day, supporting retailers means helping them sell more, operate with fewer headaches, and win in their local markets. Our success is tied to theirs, and we take that partnership seriously.
Safe to say you’re optimistic about business in 2026?
Absolutely. We’re excited about the opportunities with the new Cartersville SPC plant; that’s a key one. Another thing we’re excited about is the fact that we’re driving productivity. We’re setting our asset base, we’re constantly focused on costs but we’re also investing in the future, even against the backdrop of a weaker market overall.
