Unilin further anchors advanced production in Flanders
EUR 155 million. That’s how much the Unilin Group – part of US multinational Mohawk Industries – is channeling into its various sites. Some EUR 20 million has been earmarked for its Flanders-based production facility in Avelgem, where the group is expanding its vinyl flooring factory. A lot of money is also going toward upgrading another site in Flanders: in Wielsbeke, a new state-of-the-art production line for luxury vinyl tiles (LVT) will be added. Through its ambitious investment plans, Unilin is anchoring its production even more strongly and durably in Flanders’ advanced manufacturing ecosystem.
LVT as a growth engine
Unilin Group’s Flooring division produces vinyl liners in addition to laminate and parquet flooring. Within vinyl flooring, LVT (luxury vinyl tiles) represents a solid growth market. With Quick-Step, Pergo and Moduleo, Unilin Group is the European market leader in the LVT category. The easy-to-install vinyl planks or tiles can be installed without glue, “floating” or can be glued down. Within the LVT flooring category, there is a flexible variant and a rigid variant. The rigid one has gained tremendous popularity in recent years while the flexible click-LVT is losing popularity.
New production technology
The existing LVT line in Wielsbeke – which produces flexible click-LVT – will be phased out in 2023. This will free up space at the Flanders-based production site to invest in introducing new production technology for rigid LVT. Following a 2-year period of intensive testing and research on a lab set-up, a new line will combine the latest production technology with innovation developed and patented by Unilin itself.
This results in a finer and more detailed look and feel. In addition, the technology is a lot more energy efficient and allows the use of 100% recycled raw materials. Two absolute pluses in the current market context. The new production line is scheduled to be operational in October 2023.
In-house training
Through education and training programs within The Dive, a newly opened training center, some Unilin employees will be prepped to work with the technology of the new line in Wielsbeke. Others are given opportunities within the state-of-the-art laminate production activities at the same company site.
Adding to previous investments
It's not Unilin’s first time in the spotlight for making major investments in Flanders. In 2017, for example, Unilin’s IVC company and Mohawk took the floor at the Foreign Investment Trophy after being nominated for the Foreign Investment of the Year Trophy by Flanders Investment & Trade (FIT). Discover the story in the video below.
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Made in West-Vlaanderen website
