Hicksville, N.Y.—Two years after forming a manufacturing joint venture in Vails Gate, N.Y., Mannington Mills and Tarkett announced they have entered into a new partnership at Tarkett’s Houston facility. Called Texas Tile Manufacturing, LLC, the joint venture replaces the Vails Gate Manufacturing, Inc., initia tive the two companies formed ( FCNews, Sept. 29/Oct. 6, 2003).

As with the previous arrangement, officials said this new one is purely a manufacturing joint venture for vinyl composition tile (VCT) that is run by its own board of directors. Gilles de Beaumont, president of Tarkett’s North American commerical business, said the new board is basically the same as the previous one except for one change. Regis deBoisseau has replaced Bill Chapman, Tarkett’s vice president of manufacturing at the Houston facility, who will continue in that capacity.

The other three board members are de Beaumont, Scott Caldwell and Curtis Martin. Tom Davis, Mannington’s president and CEO, noted both Mannington and Tarkett will continue to maintain independent product lines, along with separate sales and marketing organizations. Proprietary information, such as pricing, technology and product development will remain distinct, segregated and protected, de Beaumont added.

While the initial joint venture was done to help with an over-capacity issue and was operating fine, de Beaumont said Tarkett has been upgrading its Houston facility over the years to the point where it is an “extremely efficient operation that not only offers more capacity than Vails Gate, but now boasts the largest production of VCT in North America.”

Add in the escalating raw materials prices and other increases in the cost of production and delivery, and “we realized we can do everything out of one facility and not run out of capacity.” The original joint venture was a 50/50 partnership. This one is 67/33 in Tarkett’s favor but de Beaumont said Mannington will have the opportunity to increase its stake over time. Davis said Mannington will also continue to manufacture VCT at its Salem, N.J., facility.

As for the Vails Gate operation, production stopped earlier this month as Tarkett begins the process of closing it down. Products will continue to be shipped from the facility over the next couple of months. Equipment may be moved to other Tarkett facilities or put up for sale. Either way, once everything is cleared out, the building and land will be put up for sale.

Employees of the plant were given “competitive compensation packages,” de Beaumont said as there was, “unfortunately, no place to relocate them.” With regard to the new joint venture, de Beaumont said it “will further strengthen the two industry leaders and help solidify Tarkett’s influence in the market today and in the future.” Mannington’s Davis, added,

“The VCT business remains a very important part of our long-term commerical strategy. While we have experienced good growth, the profitability of this business has been challenging due to soaring raw materials and freight costs, and this JV makes us more competitive.”