🔒How one CT manufacturer remade its supply chain as tariffs reshaped global trade

For years, Norwalk-based HMTX Industries relied heavily on China to make flooring products sold in the United States. Today, the company says none of those U.S.-bound products are made there. The manufacturer of luxury vinyl tile and other flooring materials has spent the past several years rebuilding its supply chain across the United States, Mexico and Thailand as tariffs, trade disputes and global disruptions reshaped manufacturing. HMTX’s restructuring mirrors changes made by manufacturers nationwide as companies reassessed supply chains following the pandemic and years of shifting U.S. trade policy. Now, the family-owned company — which says it generates nearly $800 million in annual revenue and counts Home Depot as a customer — is entering another transition. In May, HMTX named a new CEO, Imran Ahmad, who previously led the decorative architectural products group at Michigan-based building products manufacturer Masco Corp. His task will be to turn years of supply-chain investments into long-term growth.

Production diversification

HMTX traces its roots to 1912, when Arthur Stone founded a building materials wholesale business in Utica, New York. Over the decades, the company evolved its product lineup, changed names and eventually relocated its headquarters to Norwalk. Today, HMTX sells flooring products through wholesale distributors and retailers under brands including Halstead, Metroflor, Teknoflor, Vertex and Aspecta. Arthur Stone’s grandson, Harlan Stone, served as CEO for 30 years, before becoming executive chairman in May 2025. The 68-year-old New Canaan resident now oversees the board while leading the company’s trade policy and lobbying efforts related to tariffs. His brother, Peter Stone, has led HMTX’s international supply-chain division since 1986. HMTX began shifting flooring production out of China in 2021 after spending four years planning the transition, Harlan Stone said. At the time, nearly 95% of the flooring products it sold in the United States were manufactured in China. Today, the company no longer relies on China for products destined for the U.S. market. “Our exposure in U.S.-imposed tariffs on products made in China is virtually zero,” Stone said. To accomplish that, HMTX launched what it calls a production diversification program, adding about 2.94 million square feet of manufacturing capacity outside China between 2023 and 2025. That included a 315,000-square-foot factory in Pittston, Pennsylvania; a 620,000-square-foot plant in Monterrey, Mexico; and a 2-million-square-foot factory in Thailand. The company also has manufacturing operations in Vietnam. The Pennsylvania factory is owned by American Flooring, a joint venture between HMTX and Chinese manufacturer Elegant Home Tech. The facilities in Mexico, Thailand and Vietnam are owned by other Chinese partners that Stone declined to identify. Geopolitical concerns, U.S. port infrastructure constraints and China’s evolution into a more advanced economy influenced the company’s decision to diversify production, Stone said. Despite the shift, HMTX has maintained relationships with its Chinese manufacturing partners, which continue producing flooring in China for markets outside the United States. “We still have partnerships in China, but China has become a less important manufacturing point for us,” Stone said. He declined to disclose HMTX’s investment in the restructuring effort, but said it involved relocating equipment, training workers in new markets and ensuring products manufactured in different countries met the same specifications and quality standards.

Court fight

The company’s response to U.S. trade policy extended beyond relocating production. HMTX also became the lead plaintiff in a yearslong legal challenge to Section 301 tariffs — duties imposed on a wide range of Chinese imports during President Donald Trump’s first administration. The company has argued the tariffs were imposed improperly and has been seeking refunds on duties it paid, Stone said. HMTX and two subsidiaries filed suit in 2020. After losing in the U.S. Court of International Trade and on appeal, the company petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court earlier this year. The court has not yet decided whether it will hear the case. “We are questioning the legality of the method by which the first Trump administration put the tariff at the level they did and the manner that they did it,” Stone said. HMTX’s experience reflects a broader trend among manufacturers, according to Tao Lu, academic director of the University of Connecticut’s master’s degree program in supply chain management. Tariffs, political uncertainty and rising labor costs have prompted many companies to diversify production beyond China in recent years, Lu said. But the trend hasn’t been universal. Many manufacturers continue producing in China because of its relatively low labor costs and extensive supplier network, and moving production elsewhere can take years, Lu said.

Growing against headwinds

Meanwhile, the broader flooring market has been under pressure, according to Stone. Higher borrowing costs, sluggish home sales and weaker renovation spending have weighed on demand. Even still, HMTX grew about 4% last year while the broader luxury vinyl tile flooring market contracted by about 3.5%, Stone said. “If the market’s not growing, you’ve got to take the share away from somebody else,” he said. The company is now looking to build on that performance under new leadership. Stone said the CEO search began in January following the departure of former chief executive Debarati Sen, and focused on finding someone with leadership experience in large home-improvement businesses, as well as the right cultural fit.

Ahmad was chosen following a search that included both internal and external candidates. “In the end, Imran was the best person for the job,” Stone said. Ahmad said he was attracted to HMTX because of its scale, growth potential and reputation for innovation. His first-year priorities include developing a business strategy that will support long-term growth for the company, he said. “The first year is laying the foundation, the structure, the investments that we need to then grow over the next, not just one year, but over the next two to five years,” Ahmad said. “That strategy, that capability, that structure, the investments, all of that is going to be the priority over the first year.”

‘High-paying jobs’

Connecticut remains an important part of HMTX’s identity, even though its manufacturing footprint is global. The company is based in a 24,000-square-foot Norwalk headquarters building that opened in 2022. Two nearby 12,000-square-foot buildings support back-office operations, and one is currently being rebuilt. Stone said the company employs about 50 people in Connecticut, mostly in higher-level positions at its headquarters, and roughly 300 employees elsewhere, with most based at four locations in Georgia, where HMTX has warehouse, product testing and customer service facilities. Overseas, the company maintains offices in the Netherlands, Ireland, Shanghai, Korea and Hong Kong. Stone said Connecticut provides strong access to talent and proximity to New York’s legal, banking and financial ecosystem. But he acknowledged that the state’s housing costs make it difficult to place lower-wage jobs here. “We have to limit it just to the high-paying jobs,” Stone said.