AHF Products to close western Pa. plant | Local Business
West Hempfield Township-primarily based AHF Items is closing its Titusville plant in western Pennsylvania and shifting pick solid and engineered wooden flooring goods to vegetation in West Virginia, Kentucky and Tennessee.
The move will depart 98 people out of function by Oct. 30, AHF explained in a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (Warn) observe with the point out Division of Labor & Business, a requirement below federal regulation when a organization anticipates a mass layoff is attainable within 60 times.
The transfer comes as the flooring corporation adjusts to shifting industry situations and follows its acquisition of three flooring plants from bankrupt Armstrong Flooring in July.
“This conclusion was not built lightly, as we recognize the impact of a plant closure on a neighborhood these as Titusville,” AHF President and CEO Brian Carson told the point out. “Unfortunately, far more highly-priced local lumber prices and the absence of gear to dry lumber on web page does not allow us to scale generation.”
Carson said in a assertion to LNP | LancasterOnline that “the transform to the manufacturing footprint arrives just after comprehensive interior and exterior market investigation to align with the firm’s ongoing initiatives to simplify the small business model although strengthening each profitability and competitive positioning.” The Titusville plant represented considerably less than 1{a57a8b399caa4911091be19c47013a92763fdea5dcb0fe03ef6810df8f2f239d} of the company’s producing capability, he stated.
Carson explained the difficult choice was a necessary action in enhancing AHF’s other manufacturing capabilities and paving the way for upcoming investments that will make the enterprise more robust.
“The charge and company enhancements that AHF Merchandise can realize by production the hardwood flooring developed at Titusville at our other U.S. facilities will help our company and build supplemental work at those people destinations and allow for us to far better serve our prospects,” Carson claimed.
AHF has designs to grow its 39-acre Kankakee facility, in accordance to the Kankakee Day-to-day Journal. The company wants to improve Kankakee’s workforce from 290 to extra than 350 in the “not-too-distant future,” Carson advised the newspaper.
In a independent assertion, AHF said it has finalized the planned closing of its little Oneida, Tennessee, plant that manufactures flooring cleaners. The closure was announced in 2019 and is concluding in Oct. There are now 4 employees at this facility, the enterprise mentioned.
Just after buying the Armstrong belongings, the corporation now operates nine production amenities – 5 wood vegetation and three vinyl facilities in the U.S., which includes a single on Dillerville Street in Lancaster city, and one particular engineered hardwood plant in Cambodia. A few domestic distribution facilities provide customers via a multi-channel method that includes sellers, home facilities and distributors.
AHF, the wood-flooring division of Armstrong Flooring that was spun off in 2018, is owned by Dallas-based private fairness firm Paceline Equity Associates. Given that the spin-off, AHF has produced four acquisitions in the final four a long time, together with Armstrong Flooring. It has branched out into luxurious vinyl tile production.
A couple months right before AHF bought the Armstrong Flooring crops, it offered five of its amenities for much more than $60 million in a leaseback deal with Broadstone Internet Lease primarily based in Rochester, New York. AHF paid $24 million for Armstrong Flooring’s two Lancaster County amenities.