AHF Products is consolidating manufacturing facilities and will close its Warren, Arkansas solid hardwood flooring manufacturing facility. Production will be moved to AHF’s Beverly, West Virginia facility and the AHF West Plains, Missouri plant. The company will idle the Warren facility on September 27, 2024.
“It was a difficult decision because closing a plant impacts people and their local towns. We are extremely grateful for the dedication and service of all the employees over the years since the plant has been in operation,” said Brian Carson, president and CEO of AHF Products. The 130 employees working at the Warren plant will have employment for the next 60 days. During that time, AHF says it will be providing career counseling and working with several local companies to help the displaced workers find other employment.
AHF Products says this decision aligns with the company’s vertical integration strategy including its recent purchase of two sawmills in West Virginia. According to the company, this change to AHF’s manufacturing footprint comes after extensive internal and external market analysis to align with ongoing efforts to enhance its solid hardwood business. In addition to the sawmills, AHF adds they have invested more than $25 million in its Beverly and West Plains plants to increase capacities and capabilities and leverage the close proximity of these plants to both the lumber supply and customer base.
“Although difficult, we believe this strategic move is necessary to best service our customers. While we are indefinitely idling the plant, our plan is to retain ownership of the facility, which will allow us to restart it; however, we do not foresee this happening soon,” added Carson. According to the company, this idling is being treated as a plant closing and notices were provided as required by the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act (WARN).
“As the leader in hardwood flooring, we continue to invest in all our hardwood manufacturing facilities to increase capacities, efficiencies and to innovate new products for our customers,” added Carson. “We are bullish about solid hardwood. In West Virginia, for example, we are upgrading the front end of all the finishing lines in the plant, and we have also completely retooled our milling operations,” he added.
With this plant closure, AHF will encompass 12 plants, with 11 manufacturing facilities in the U.S. and one in Cambodia.