Mohawk Industries closes Chatsworth Ga. yarn plant

staff File photo by Dave Flessner Calhoun, Ga.-based Mohawk Industries is the largest flooring manufacturer in the world.
staff File photo by Dave Flessner Calhoun, Ga.-based Mohawk Industries is the largest flooring manufacturer in the world.
photo staff File photo by Dave Flessner Calhoun, Ga.-based Mohawk Industries is the largest flooring manufacturer in the world.

A flooring manufacturer is closing one of its plants in northwest Georgia and plans to move more than 150 workers to other facilities.

Mohawk Industries officials said Tuesday that the company will close its yarn plant in Chatsworth in August and move 156 workers to other northwest Georgia facilities, according to the Dalton Daily Citizen.

The move came just days after Shaw Industries, Mohawk's arch-competitor, closed a plant of its own.

Both Mohawk and Shaw have made a concerted effort in recent years to shutter old plants that produce and tuft stapled yarn, which is an obsolete and labor-intensive process, in favor of newer facilities that use the bulk continuous filament process, which is more automated.

The demand for carpet over the past two years has been flat in the face of more popular hard surfaces like wood, tile and vinyl. Hard surface flooring grew at about 3.4 percent in 2014, said Kemp Harr, publisher of Floor Focus magazine.

"Stapled yarn is a labor-intensive process," Harr said.

Joey Faircloth, Mohawk's senior vice president of manufacturing and operations, said his company will transfer workers to plants that have been significantly upgraded.

Mohawk, along with Shaw and others like Engineered Floors, has invested hundreds of millions of dollars in new technology during the recession, which has enabled them to manufacture vinyl flooring that mimics the look and feel of tile and wood, and produce carpet with a minimum of labor and water waste.

The Associated Press contributed to this article.

Contact Ellis Smith at 423-757-6315 or esmith@timesfreepress.com with tips and documents.

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