Construction of the first ROCKFON North America manufacturing facility is on schedule to begin production in Mississippi by mid-2017. The exterior shell is taking shape and equipment is scheduled to arrive in the first quarter. A grand opening celebration will be planned once the new facility is operational.

Global Collaboration
The ROCKFON business is the leading supplier of stone wool acoustic solutions, a subsidiary of Denmark-based ROCKWOOL International A/S and an affiliate to ROXUL Inc. The Mississippi facility will be the fifth ROCKFON manufacturing facility in the world, extending global capacity and meeting the growing demand for ROCKFON stone wool acoustic ceiling products in North America.

To date, nearly 100 ROCKWOOL and ROXUL associates from around the world have provided their knowledge and time on the ROCKFON project to meet the highest standards on design, construction, equipment, materials and safety. Leading the project is ROCKFON managing director John Medio, with involvement from ROXUL president Trent Ogilvie. ROCKWOOL Group's Jean-Michel Grivotte acts as both project manager and project executive.

"The global collaboration on this project defines its success," says Medio. "ROCKWOOL Group associates have provided valuable guidance to our North American teams to ensure that we will add the same high quality and performance products to our global capacity as offered by our other facilities."

Based in the United States, Peter Regenberg, ROXUL vice president of operations, and Tom Smith, ROCKFON business development manager, have served as project executives from the earliest stages of the North America facility's development. They were part of the key working groups who traveled to Poland to observe best practices and apply them in Mississippi.

Construction Progress
In March 2016, the ROCKFON business broke ground in Marshall County, Miss., on its new facility. Located adjacent to the existing ROXUL facility, it will span 130,000 square-feet (12,000 square-meters) with room for future expansion.

Since the groundbreaking, the design-build team of Allen & Hoshall architects and Flintco construction managers has been preparing the site. The site has been excavated and graded. The concrete foundations have been poured. The steel has been erected. Finally, the exterior shell is taking shape.

The new facility in Mississippi will manufacture ROCKFON stone wool acoustic ceiling products. The ROCKFON business will continue to manufacture its specialty metal ceiling panels and Chicago Metallic suspension systems in its Chicago and Baltimore facilities. Chicago Metallic suspension systems also are manufactured in Belgium, Malaysia and China. Other ROCKFON stone wool manufacturing facilities are located in the Netherlands, Poland, France and Russia.