Faus Calhoun Expansion Plans Still on Track

Calhoun, GA, November 28, 2007—Despite recent layoffs caused by the downturn in the housing industry, the Faus Group told the Calhoun Times that its planned expansion in Calhoun will move forward.

The Spanish flooring company said it plans to make Calhoun the manufacturing center for all of its sales in the United States.

Faus Group President Juan Flores said the company, which opened a laminate flooring manufacturing operation in Calhoun in January 2006, plans to recall the 140 workers who were laid off this fall by the middle of 2008.

“We expect to be back at our normal level of production by the spring of 2008,” Flores told the Development Authority of Gordon County, according to the Times.

The Calhoun plant had been making 40 million square feet of laminate flooring annually before it was forced to eliminate its night and weekend shifts earlier this year, cutting its 280-person work force in half.

Flores said that once operations were back at full capacity, the company planned to expand capacity to 100 million square feet.

Flores said the flooring industry is in its worst slump in at least 15 years and sales are down 40 to 50 percent industrywide.

“Since the middle of this year, we have been hit hard by the housing slump that was caused by the sub-prime mortgage crisis,” Flores said. “The flooring industry is directly related to the housing and building industry.”

The slump has hurt sales at Home Depot, one of Faus Group’s biggest customers, he said.

“We had to align ourselves to the new reality of the economy and the lower demand for our product,” he said. “This is a temporary situation, and as soon as we balance our inventories, we plan to rebuild our production levels.”