Flooring maker Mannington Mills Inc. is investing $22 million in an expansion in Georgia to produce luxury vinyl tile.
The project follows "increased customer demand for domestically produced luxury vinyl flooring," Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp's office said in a Feb. 20 news release.
The facility, on a 10.5-acre site in Calhoun, is expected to create 268 jobs for Mannington, based in Salem, N.J.
"Acquisition of this site is part of Mannington's long-term growth investment plan for the Northwest Georgia area," Mannington President and CEO Russell Grizzle said in the release. "Mannington continues to experience high demand for the flooring products we make in Georgia, and this will help us accommodate and capitalize further on that demand."
LVT has been a growing market for flooring makers.
Ed Hudson, director of marketing research services at Home Innovation Research Labs in Upper Marlboro, Md., said at Vinyltec in 2019 that LVT and the similar luxury vinyl plank have already hit a 7 percent market share in flooring in about six years since they hit the market.
LVT has also been in the crosshairs of the federal tariff fight with China, with U.S. makers seeking 25 percent duties on China-made flooring. Those tariffs were removed in late 2019.
Mannington isn't alone in building new manufacturing in the Southeastern U.S. for vinyl flooring. Just in the past three months, Novalis Innovative Flooring of Hong Kong said it will build a $30 million plant in Dalton, Ga., and Nanjing, China-based GreenView Floors International Inc. announced a $26 million plant in Adairsville, Ga.