I've written a couple of times about the Great Staycation Summer of 2020 and what that's meant for the makers of pools and decks.
Now let's look indoors. If you, like me, are thinking, "Since I'm not going anywhere, maybe I can use some of that money that would have gone to a vacation and update my kitchen or bathroom." If flooring is a part of that project, you're about to get a lot more "made in the U.S." options on that project thanks to the boom in luxury vinyl tile (or luxury vinyl plank) and investments by global companies who want local production to both get closer to customers and avoid tariffs.
And it's especially good news for Georgia. The region, which is a longtime center of carpet production in the U.S., has turned into the LVT capital. Consider last week. On June 24, Gov. Brian Kemp's office announced that Creative Flooring Solutions, a China-based company, would spend $70 million to open a new flooring plant in Calhoun. Two days later, it announced Portland, Ore.-based Wellmade Flooring would put $26 million into an expansion in Bartow County.
And those two announcements come on top of a May announcement by Hauli Flooring that it would spend $27 million for production in the state, Mannington Mills' February statement it would invest $22 million in Georgia and a January statement from Novalis to invest $30 million.