As Mullican Flooring (Johnson City, Tenn.) anticipates increased demand in the coming months, the company announced Friday it will hire 28 employees and expand production at its plant in Norton, Va.
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As Mullican Flooring (Johnson City, Tenn.) anticipates increased demand in the coming months, the company announced Friday it will hire 28 employees and expand production at its plant in Norton, Va.
In total, Mullican is investing $3 million to facilitate the expansion; $65,000 of that amount was granted to the company by the Virginia Tobacco Indemnification and Community Revitalization Commission. The Norton facility will have an additional 400,000 board feet of kiln capacity, representing a 20 percent increase in the facility's overall production. Mullican makes solid wood flooring in Norton for its Knob Creek, Chatelaine, Muirfield, Castillian and St. Andrews collections.
"Right now, housing starts are up 21.5 percent, which is a good sign," said Neil Poland, president of Mullican Flooring. "We want to remain poised to meet the market demands of builders and developers as the American economy continues to improve" He added, "future demand will increase as housing rebounds toward more normal levels of housing starts."
In November 2011, Mullican announced it would re-locate its headquarters in Johnson City, Tenn., and shift production of certain engineered flooring products from China to the U.S. "The changes over the past year to our finishing capacity in Johnson City have played a key role in our ability to increase production at Norton," Poland said. "By the end of 2012, we will have added more than 100 new jobs in Southwest Virginia and Northeast Tennessee."
The Virginia Tobacco Indemnification and Community Revitalization Commission was established in 1999 to promote economic development in tobacco-dependent communities using funds from the Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement (MSA). In 1998, the attorneys general of 46 states signed the MSA with the four largest tobacco companies in the U.S. to settle state lawsuits to recover billions of dollars in costs associated with treating smoking-related illnesses. Four states-Florida, Minnesota, Mississippi and Texas-settled their tobacco cases separately from the MSA states. Over the first 25 years of the MSA's existence, states will have received over $206 billion from the settlement, and Virginia's share will be $4.1 billion.
Left to right: Kenny Gilley, chairman of the Wise County Industrial Development Authority; Neil Poland, president of Mullican Flooring; Terry Kilgore, chairman of the Virginia Tobacco Commission; Virginia Sen. Bill Carrico; Dana Kilgore, Wise County Board of Supervisors; Chris Kommes, director of human resources at Mullican; and Jim Myers, plant manager for Mullican's plant in Norton.