Hardwood Floors April/May 2025

Initially, Karl Ogden traveled around North and South America performing service work on woodworking machinery. Having worked first for Schelling in Europe Ogden Group MATTHEWS

NOTEWORTHY IN NC

Unfortunately, it might be a little late to enjoy skiing in our mountains and a little too early to bask on our beaches, but there is a great opportunity to enjoy some of Charlotte’s excellent restaurants and to come watch some live demonstrations at Ogden Group’s facilities. Karl Ogden

and then for Michael Weinig in the USA, Ogden began to contract independently with several German woodworking machinery companies (including Dimter, Paul, and Grecon) to service and sell their machinery in the Americas. In the 1990s, Ogden Sales Group became the exclusive North American dealer for Lestro Ledinek d.o.o. and NEVA – TST s.r.o. Around the same time, the company started to produce and manufacture parts in the Matthews facility. In 2006, Ogden and Russ Hass purchased the machinery manufacturing companies – Radio Frequency Services and Protech Machinery – now known as RfsProtech, LLC. Ogden Sales Group and RfsProtech together are known in the industry as Ogden Group. “Ogden Group is known for offering complete manufacturing solutions for the engineered flooring industry,” says Ogden. “We have machinery to produce the Premiere Finishing & Coating was formed in 2001 in Greensboro and moved shortly thereafter to its current location in Reidsville. The company has around 35 team members and owns a 70,000 square foot production facility and 90,000 square foot warehouse. “We have the most flexible finish line in the industry and totally custom turnkey (flooring and finishing) projects,” says Jeff Beach, president/CEO of Premiere Finishing & Coating. “There is almost nothing we cannot match or create.” He adds that they create custom colors on any species, grade, and width, as well as stock more than 250,000 square feet of European oak for custom orders. “While today we target a more ‘high-end/specialized’ customer, there were periods when we prefinished more than 1,000,000 square feet per month. Our record is more than 50,000 square feet in an eight-hour shift. Those commodity days are behind us.” The company contributes locally to the United Way and has donated flooring to the Gary Sinise Foundation R.I.S.E. (Restoring Independence Supporting Empowerment) program which builds mortgage-free, custom, specially adapted smart homes for severely wounded veterans and first responders. Beach says Premiere Finishing & Coating has been exhibiting at the NWFA Expo for as long as he can remember, and it will be great to have the show locally. Premiere Finishing & Coating LLC REIDSVILLE BOOTH 1621

veneers and press systems to glue the veneers to the substate. We also build machinery systems that produce core products for the engineered market.” He notes that the company’s three signature products include thin-cutting frame saws to produce veneers, CNC grinding machines, and the PUR Continuous Roll Press for gluing the veneers to substrate. “We can proudly say that most of our machines and products are produced wholly in the U.S.A. and this is quite rare in the United States,” Ogden explains. “Because of this we can also offer what we feel is better after sales service for our parts and tech services.”

North Carolina has been my home for more than 40 years. From the mountains to the coast, we have it all. Enjoy some barbecue. Jeff Beach NOTEWORTHY IN NC

the magazine of the national wood flooring association

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