Our Top 10 Flooring Industry Stories for 2011

Chattanooga, TN, Dec. 29, 2011 -- The editors of Floor Focus magazine and FloorDaily.net have chosen their top 10 stories for 2011.

These are not necessarily in order of importance.

IVC opens Dalton sheet vinyl plant. The International Vinyl Company began production at its new facility in March. The 520,000 square foot headquarters includes both manufacturing and distribution facilities and more than doubles the size of its Dalton location.

Orchid Ceramics leaves U.S. market. Orchid Ceramics closed its U.S. operations this summer after nine years of business. Owner Corona, based in Colombia, South America said competitive challenges along with the macroeconomic situation in the U.S., has created an unprofitable environment.

Blue Ridge Carpet Mill closes. Blue Ridge, a commercial carpet mill based in Ellijay, Georgia, saw its business peak in 2005 with over $50 million in sales. It focused on the office sector of the commercial carpet business. Blue Ridge struggled throughout the recession and wasn’t able to hold on long enough for the market to recover.

Shift to filament yarn results in several major plant closures. Beaulieu, Shaw and Mohawk all closed spun yarn plants this year as consumers continued to gravitate toward filament yarn products.

Death of Ray Anderson. Interface founder Anderson was the face of sustainability in the carpet industry and was also widely admired in manufacturing generally for his pioneering approach to the issue. His accomplishments in this arena are too numerous to mention here. Anderson was also responsible for making carpet tile a practical alternative to broadloom and today it is the fastest growing sector in the carpet industry.

Import tariffs on engineered hardwood from China. A highly publicized dispute between domestic manufacturers of engineered hardwood flooring and importers of product from China was resolved late in the year when the International Trade Commission imposed tariffs on Chinese imports from numerous manufacturers. However, the tariffs were much smaller than the petitioners sought.

Significant shift away from Nylon as a carpet fiber. While Nylon is still the dominant fiber, it is being pressured on a number of fronts, especially cost. This is resulting in the most significant transformation in decades as consumers move toward polyester and triexta fibers. Nylon's share has retreated to where it stood 10 years ago at about 55%.

Rapid growth of Engineered Floors. Former Shaw Industries CEO and founder Bob Shaw re-entered the carpet industry in a big way, focusing on the multi-family housing market using state of the art manufacturing technology to make solution-dyed polyester. The firm has been hiring workers and building new plants, while many carpet firms have been doing just the opposite. By the end of next year, the firm should have about 1,100 workers.

Economy sluggish but expanding. The economy so far has defied predictions of a double-dip recession and has continued to grow, although slower than anyone wants. While the economy is showing signs of life in employment, consumer confidence, and manufacturing, it's being held back by the continuing slump in housing and construction, as well as debt problems in Europe,

Demand for laminate flooring drops significantly. The improved visuals and acoustic qualities of luxury vinyl tile, as well as low prices for engineered hardwood, continue to put pressure on laminates, which now get more than half of their domestic sales from the home centers.

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