Unilin’s Sales Manager-Asia Pacific Teek Leng Sow, and Product Development Manager Joyce Van Waeleghem.
Syarikat Malaysia Wood Industries (Unilin): A Truly American Owned, Multinational Flooring Producer
By Michael Buckley
Kedah, Malaysia–Located in the State of Kedah, close to Penang in Peninsular Malaysia, is Syarikat Malaysia Wood Industries (MWI) under the company name Unilin®. MWI focuses on fewer surface species than some other Asian producers, namely in local Kempas and Merbau, plus imported American and European Oak, European Ash, American Walnut, African Iroko and others. What the range lacks in species choice MWI makes up several times over by offering a whole gamut of grades and structures, surface treatments, stains, lacquers and finishes; lengths, widths and thickness, patterns and bevelling as well as specialized choices of flooring structures.
The Marina collection, for example, consists of one strip floors with a special groove of 5mm wide decorative rubber strip creating a nautical deck appeal. The range of standard finishes on offer is myriad – stained silk, satin and matt, oiled, fumed, brushed or deep brushed, saw-cut, crafted, and a new “timeworn” option of a floor that has gracefully aged over the years. Unilin manufactures engineered wood flooring and trading under the Quick Step®, Pergo and Universal® brands, and has a workforce of about 1,100 mainly Malaysian (80 percent) nationals. Backed by international finance and marketing, the real success of MWI is its high tech production and passion with innovation. The result is a phenomenal choice of products for its global marketplace.
North American White Oak lumber is among the species used in Unilin’s flooring products.
The history and management of MWI and its workforce is drawn mainly from locally born Malaysians, but the company is now the product of sophisticated international cooperation. MWI traces itself back to a 1969 sawmill supplied by its own forest concessions for production of sawn timber furniture and doors. In 1988 the world-renowned furniture innovator Larry Mo, then pioneering products using discarded Rubberwood, introduced engineered flooring production to the company. MWI is now a wholly owned subsidiary of the Unilin Company based in Belgium with global employees of over 5,000 and 21 production units, making MWI one of the largest. Unilin has over 40 years of experience in wood processing. Since then Unilin has joined the American Mohawk Group, the largest flooring producer of carpet, ceramic tiles, laminates, wood, stone, vinyl and rugs in the world with 32,500 employees, US$7.4 billion sales and is quoted on the New York Stock Exchange. Mohawk’s international presence includes operations in China, Europe, Malaysia, Mexico, Brazil and Russia.
Unilin “has strong markets in Australia, Japan, Russia, Brazil as well as the USA through the Mohawk distribution,” according to Teek Leng Sow, Sales Manager - Asia Pacific, based in Kedah.
Production at MWI is now running at 2.05 million M2 per year in three co-located plants and the latest stock-take of raw material held was 7,700 M3 of solid wood.
MWI became the first engineered flooring plant in Asia, also producing mosaic parquet to recover small pieces. This Rubberwood availability, as well as the modern use by MWI of some Pine and Spruce cores, enables such engineered flooring producers to compete with higher cost solid flooring by using less face material.
Main products are 3-layer flooring, “multilayer parquet,” in three-strip, two and single-strip, as well as Pattern planks in various combinations at 12.5mm and 14mm overall thickness and standard lengths up to 2.2 M in some products. Four grades, from the top, are Finesse, Nature, Marquant-Accent and Character. When Unilin took over MWI it introduced both Uniclic and the dropdown click Multifit in most of its standard long planks. Later the Cadenza range was developed, which has smaller planks (1,150 X 145mm) on HDF core with Uniclic Multifit click for the do-it-yourself (DIY) or home improvement market. Combinations of species are also available and not surprisingly, given the close corporate connections with the European market and the USA, Oak is the major species accounting for as much of 60 percent of shipments from MWI.
Unilin’s emphasis on quality is apparent as employees check product at all stages of production.
At the entrance to MWI’s Kedah plant is a new installation training center that also acts as a showroom for visiting specifiers and customers, where all possible flooring combinations are displayed. This project of Joyce Van Waeleghem, Product Development Manager Wood, “gives us the opportunity to show all the combinations in wood that we are capable of for markets all over the world. It showcases multiple options.” However innovation is not confined to the technical, for changes are taking place in the market too, so MWI also supplies own brand flooring to major global distributors.
Unilin confirms that it uses both E1 and E0 (non-formaldehyde) adhesive, depending on customer requirements. In the depths of the plant is the laboratory where glue adhesion and a whole range of other tests are conducted, as would be expected from such a company. However the separately located color control facilities and disciplines are second to none. Control samples are logged and stored in dark and air conditioned storage, and are matched against each production run from color samples, which are also stored. The company also offers a sampling service of well-presented samples rather than relying on distributors, who offer their customers cut-up pieces from stock, which may not be fully representative of the grade produced.
A team of Unilin employees enages in the finish matching process of flooring product.
MWI is committed to a range of environmental policies and is certified to FSC and PEFC with careful selection of its sources of raw materials from sustainable and legal forest resources. Unilin says it “advocates certification of forests” and is “committed to purchasing all our timber from legal sources.” Its HDF core is PEFC-certified and the Rubberwood “is recycled, sourced solely from plantations” and the company is confident that all wood materials are legal and sustainable. The local non-plantation species such as Merbau and Kempas, and locally produced veneers for core material, are PEFC-certified through endorsement of the Malaysian Timber Certification Scheme (MTCS). The company also converted two years ago to production of water-based lacquer stains and finishes supplied by leading international manufacturers, except where oils or other specialized finishes are required. Unilin states that it “only uses adhesives corresponding to the E1-standard which fulfils the highest international environmental standards approved by accredited laboratories.” The plant is well equipped with chippers and boilers to process all wood waste, which produces sufficient energy to power all the kilns and presses without drawing on the national grid.
The conclusion from visiting Unilin and touring the manufacturing facilities is a company with a high-tech, clean and efficient plant, well run with a passion for innovation and an ambassador for Malaysian industrial production in the wood industry. For more information, visit online at www.unilin.com.
North American long length kiln-dried Oak is ready to be used at Unilin’s Kedah, Malaysia, facility.
An employee oversees production of American Oak as it is processed in Weinig equipment. Oak accounts for as much as 60 percent of shipments from MWI-Unilin.
Four grades of American Oak product options are offered: Finesse, Nature, Marquant-Accent and Character.
