The Natural Wood Floor Company is now able to produce its own engineered wood flooring following an £725,000 investment in the company’s Romanian factory.
The Wandsworth-based firm, which previously sourced engineered products from other suppliers, has installed Ital presses, a Weinig Unimat moulder, a Grecon double-end tenoner and a Boere sanding line at the 90,000ft2 factory, opened earlier this year.
Peter Keane, the company’s managing director, said about 3,400m2 of engineered flooring had already been manufactured and shipped to the UK.
The equipment is making an engineered flooring range in prime and rustic oak, from 135-250mm widths and 20mm or 14mm thickness, featuring a hardwood core.
Testing of the product was undertaken in an accelerated aging chamber in France, normally used for demonstrating the durability of external windows and doors.
The range will be extended to include walnut and other species in order to capitalise on a trend towards darker woods.
Three-strip engineered flooring is still being sourced by the company from other suppliers for cost efficiency reasons.
Earlier this year, the Natural Wood Flooring Company spent more than £200,000 on a second Weinig finger-jointing machine to produce boards for building sets in the theatre industry.
