Johnson City, Tennessee, April 20, 2001 – Harris-Tarkett, Inc., the Johnson City, TN-based hardwood flooring subsidiary of Domco Tarkett Inc. (TSE: DOC), announced today that it has acquired the former Burruss facility in Brookneal, VA for a consideration of US$3.5 million. The 165,000-square-foot facility includes a pre-dryer and kiln-drying operations, two production lines and warehousing. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. 

“Our customers have been asking us to provide them with more unfinished strip products”, said Jim Morando, President of Harris-Tarkett.  “This acquisition and the just completed expansion at Stuart Flooring will almost double our manufacturing capacity in this key segment of the industry.  This will allow us to meet our customers’ requirements for high quality unfinished strips and in doing so, strengthen our relationships. This acquisition marks the fourth time in less than six years that we have made strategic acquisitions to better position ourselves in the market place”.

Mr. Morando added, “We are eager to begin operations at Brookneal and, in the process, create over 100 new jobs over the next 18 months”.

Harris-Tarkett plans to make additional capital investments over that period to upgrade the product lines, add lumber grading and make other improvements to the infrastructure.

A subsidiary of Domco Tarkett Inc., Harris-Tarkett is the second largest hardwood flooring manufacturer in North America.  It currently operates five manufacturing facilities in the U.S., not including the Brookneal plant and employs 725 people.  Harris-Tarkett produces a range of prefinished and unfinished solid and engineered plank, strip and parquet products and distributes them throughout North America through a network of independent flooring distributors.

Domco Tarkett Inc., with its head office in Farnham, Québec, is the second largest North American manufacturer of hard surface floor covering.  Thanks to its nine plants and vast distribution network throughout Canada and the U.S., not including the Brookneal facility, Domco Tarkett offers one of the most comprehensive, high-quality product lines in the flooring industry.  Its products are sold to residential and commercial customers under the brand names of Domco, Azrock, Nafco, Tarkett and Harris Tarkett.  Domco Tarkett counts some 2,200 employees.