GranitiFiandre SPA Progresses with Construction of First North American Tile Manufacturing Plant in Tennessee

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Researched by Industrialinfo.com (Industrial Information Resources, Incorporated; Houston, Texas). GranitiFiandre SPA (ISE:GRF)(Castellarano, Italy) is progressing with construction of its first North American tile manufacturing plant. SSOE Incorporated (Nashville, Tennessee) provided the architectural and engineering (A&E) expertise for the 600,000 square foot plant that is now under construction at 238 Porcelain Stone Drive in Crossville, Tennessee (Plant 1059048, PEC 25001556).

GranitiFiandre selected T.W. Frierson Contractors Incorporated (Nashville, Tennessee) as the building general contractor for the project in early 2003. Construction began in March of 2003. T.W. Frierson is nearly complete with the metal building and concrete work at the site. Giorgio Padoan, Plant Manager for GranitiFiandre, indicates that equipment installation has begun and most contracts have been let for the project. Originally scheduled for operation by the summer of 2004, the project completion has been delayed until the end of 2004, due to several redesigns of the plant. Industrialinfo.com has been tracking this over $30 million project since the summer of 2002 as part of its North American Industrial Database.

The plant will include raw material storage, processing, pressing, kiln lines, shipping, and an automated storage and retrieval warehouse system. GranitiFiandre is a world leader in the manufacturing of high quality ceramic tile. The company has two operational plants in Castellarano, Italy.