Apr 18 2006
James Hardie announced today that it will cease its market development initiatives for Artisan roofing and close its roofing pilot plant located in Fontana, California.
The company constructed a small-scale roofing manufacturing plant in 2003. Since then, it has been undertaking production and market trials of its new roofing product in Southern California to quantify the market potential of the new product.
The decision not to proceed with the roofing product was made after a review of market testing results concluded that greater shareholder value would be created by focussing on other fibre cement growth initiatives.
The closure of the roofing pilot plant will result in an impairment charge of US$13.4 million, and will be recorded in the 2006 fiscal year financial statements.
James Hardie’s Chief Executive Officer, Louis Gries said “We undertook a low-cost low-risk strategy with roofing and this has proved to be the correct approach. We have found that the costs of manufacture and potential market for the roofing product make it a less attractive investment for us than other fibre cement growth opportunities.”