A flooring manufacturer announced plans for a new $30 million factory in Georgia this week as state officials traveled in China for an economic-development mission centered on Delta Air Lines Inc.’s new nonstop flight to Shanghai.
Complete Flooring Supply Corp. will set up in Calhoun in northwest Georgia, creating 100 jobs close to the new Appalachian Regional Port set to open in August in Murray County, according to a release from Gov. Nathan Deal’s office.
Ken Liu, a vice president of the company, announced the project at a Georgia appreciation reception for Chinese companies in Shanghai Sunday night. The company is run by Feng and Bin Liu. The latter is also CEO of Simple Floors Inc., a network of flooring supply stores. CFS got its start as Chi Fong Silk, an importing company starting in 1993. The company later began selling bamboo flooring, which it now distributes in both the U.S. and Canada.
CFS is registered in Suwanee, Ga., but makes bamboo, cork and engineered hardwood flooring through a sister company with factories in Shanghai, said Ms. Bin Liu, reached by phone in Atlanta.
She added that tariffs helped drive the decision to set up U.S. manufacturing, especially given recent threats by President Donald Trump to place levies on virtually all Chinese imports.
The northwestern part of Georgia, especially from Calhoun up the Interstate 75 corridor up to Dalton, is known as a global flooring and carpet capital and has drawn substantial foreign investment in the sector. Giants like Mohawk, Shaw and Engineered Floors have key operations in the region.
“We have quite a few global companies here for a community our size,” Kathy Johnson, president and CEO of the Gordon County Chamber of Commerce, told Global Atlanta, pointing to expansions by of Korean interiors firm LG Hausys.
Ms. Johnson said logistics were a factor in the CSF location decision.
In addition to proximity to the inland rail terminal, which did come up in conversations, CFS will occupy a building adjacent to a new exit off Interstate 75 built about a year and a half ago to improve access to Georgia Highway 53, a key east-west thoroughfare, Ms. Johnson said.
Coincidentally, CFS will take over a facility left by a Turkish company, Tayse Rugs, which has expanded into a larger building in Calhoun.
Ms. Johnson said the community works mostly with the Georgia Department of Economic Development’s Global Commerce Division on recruitment of foreign investors.
That was the case here, as China initiatives director Stella Xu handled the project. Ms. Liu praised Ms. Xu and the state for their support throughout the process.
“They helped us coordinate with partners in utility service and local government, and made sure we all worked together cohesively,” she said in the release. “We firmly believe that Georgia is a great place to do business.”
Pat Wilson, the department’s commissioner (also traveling in China with the delegation), said in a statement that “CFS’s growth in Georgia is the result of our strong relationship with the Chinese business community and overall pro-business climate.”
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