The hardwood flooring mills that make up the membership of NOFMA: The Wood Flooring Manufacturers Association voted recently to expand its membership eligibility requirements to include non-U.S. based manufacturers of solid and engineered wood flooring products. The intent of the move is, initially at least, to reach out to Canadian manufacturers whose flooring products collectively account for more than 30 percent of the wood flooring used in the United States each year.
The move is a significant change in policy for the association which, since 1909, has been open only to U.S.-based manufacturers. The policy change allows NOFMA to control the order in which the association expands into designated countries or geographic regions, as well as the timetable for such expansion.