Jul 12 2006
Florida Tile Inc (Lakeland, FL, USA) has announced that it plans to make a major investment in a state-of-the-art porcelain tile production line at its facility in Lawrenceburg, KY, USA. When completed, the new line will produce approximately 3.7 million sq.m. of porcelain tile per annum.
The total investment will be close to US$20 million and the overall project will take two years to complete. The first phase of construction is scheduled to begin later this year and first production is expected to be available in May 2007. The next phase for the plant is scheduled to follow immediately and is expected to be completed in October 2008. The project will create nearly 70 new jobs in Anderson County.
Buck Burwell, CEO of Florida Tile, said: "This project is part of our overall long term plan to upgrade and modernize our company's product offering, improve service, and reduce response time to our customers. We will soon have domestic state-of-the-art porcelain floor tile production, domestic wall tile production, and our National Distribution Center; all located together in Lawrenceburg, Kentucky.
"Our clay tile plant in Shannon, Georgia will continue to produce floor tile and trim for about a year, but will gradually be phased down as the porcelain production in Kentucky becomes available. We will continue to service our product lines through their normal life cycle. Our best selling clay products will be either outsourced or converted to porcelain."
Florida Tile is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Italian group Panaria Group Industrie Ceramica SpA, which acquired the US company in February 2006. Giuliano Pini, CEO of Panaria Group, commented: "Since the Florida Tile acquisition, the US has become an even more important market for our group and is the market with the most interesting expected growth rate in the mid term. For this reason, it is strategically important to have an efficient production plant in the US in order to improve the service to our customers and to reduce transportation costs and duties."