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Flooring company Unilin is expanding its Thomasville facility with a 100,000-square-foot warehouse as part of a $36 million investment that will add 50 jobs and bring the company's total Triad work force to more than 350.
The expansion was first reported by the Triad Business Journal in November. It comes as Unlin renames its Thomasville facility "Mohawk Laminate" as part of a marketing strategy for a company whose brands include American Olean, Bigelow, Daltile, Durkan, IVC, Karastan, Lees, Marazzi, Mohawk, Pergo and Quick-Step. Unilin was bought by Mohawk Industries in 2005.
EnlargeUnilin's Thomasville facility, now known as Mohawk Laminate, is undergoing a $36 milllion… more
LLOYD WHITTINGTON
The expansion, announced Friday by the Davidson County Economic Development Commission, is the third local expansion for the company in recent years.
Natalie Cumpton, the company's human resources manager, said the expansion represents another "exciting milestone" for the company's Thomasville plan.
“Our production demand for premium laminate flooring made in the U.S. continues to increase," she said. "The company’s investment at Cloniger Road will create many exceptional career opportunities for people with technical skills and automation experience.
Steve Googe, president and CEO of the commission, said the new warehouse itself will not create new jobs but that Mohawk Laminate has already begun the hiring process for the 50 manufacturing jobs needed to boost production.
"I think they are taking applications now," Googe said. "They opened their Denton Road facility back up and I know they use that as a training facility."
Googe said the company began rolling out the new name Mohawk Laminate at a trade show in Las Vegas in November.
"Pergo was a licensee of theirs and they bought them a couple of years ago, and so they were operating under all of these different names," Googe said. "So they just folded everything under the Mohawk Laminate heading. It is my understanding that they have changed the signing."
He added that Unilin/Mohawk Laminate is a strong corporate citizen for the city of Thomasville, supporting United Way and the schools there. "For a community like Thomasville that is quite a benefit," he said.
Unilin first established its Davidson County operations in the early 2000s with about 70 employees in a former Columbia Flooring facility on Denton Road.
