W. Christopher Wellborn
Vice Chairman at Mohawk Industries
Thank you, Jim. For the quarter, our Global Ceramics segment delivered solid results despite slow demand and industry competition impacting pricing across our regions. The segment's operating income benefited from improved productivity, partially offset by pricing and shutdowns. We implemented many cost-containment initiatives, which included reengineering products, improving processes and rationalizing higher-cost operations.
In a softer market, we increased distribution by expanding our customer-base across sales channels, including residential builders, specifiers and specialty retailers. In the quarter, we improved our mix with products launched into 2024, higher commercial sales and expansion of premium collections. We are elevating our product offering through more advanced printing, polishing and rectifying technologies that create industry-leading visuals.
In the US, we are leveraging our ceramic service centers to grow contractor sales and increasing our position with kitchen and bath dealers nationwide. We are introducing new high-end quartz countertop collections in advance of our new US production line opening later this year.
In Europe, our specifier team, showrooms for the A&D community and premium products are driving commercial sales growth and we are increasing export sales outside the region. In both Mexico and Brazil, the integration of our acquisitions has improved our product offering, sales organizations and market strategies and our Brazilian exports are strengthening as the currency weakened.
Our Flooring Rest of World segment saw improved sales of laminate, LVT and panels versus the prior year, though insulation faced additional headwinds. Our margins were compressed due to competitive industry pricing and rising material and labor costs that were partially offset by productivity gains and lower energy expenses. Our restructuring initiatives in this segment are progressing and improving our cost position and productivity as we rationalize less-efficient assets, streamline our product portfolio and reduce administrative overhead. We also contained cost in the quarter by enhancing manufacturing and logistics efficiency -- efficiencies and continuing to manage inventory levels.
In December, the European Union introduced tariffs of more than 40% on Chinese wood flooring, which should benefit our sales of laminate, LVT and wood. We grew the sales and mix of our premium laminate and LVT collections through increased advertising that attracted consumers to our retailers. In addition, we increased product placement with our customers in Central Europe that will improve our LVT sales.
In our panels business, volumes held up as we took more aggressive promotional actions and our more differentiated decorative panels performed better given stronger non-residential projects. Our insulation business experienced weak demand and margin pressure from increased competition and material costs. In-line with the market, we have announced price increases in installation to partially offset rising material costs. In our panels and insulation businesses, we are investing to expand our geographic footprint and are developing new products to satisfy those markets.
In our Flooring North-America segment, we maintain sales in a declining market with benefits from our successful 2024 product launches in our fashion categories. Year-over-year, our margins were reduced by lower pricing and product mix and higher inflation, partially offset by higher-volume, stronger productivity and cost-reduction actions.
During the quarter, we completed our LVT restructuring initiatives, which will enhance operations and provide significant savings. We focused on increasing volume across sales channels, optimizing our SG&A spend and expanding both the home center and residential construction channels. In the quarter, our hard service sales grew in all channels as a result of increased distribution of our 2024 product introductions.
Sales of our recycled PVC-free resilient flooring expanded as a high-performance LBT alternative. Our residential carpet collections gained market-share with the sales of our PET premier polyester collections and fashion categories leading our performance. In the commercial channel, our carpet tile products led our sales with their appealing designs and sustainable properties. Hospitality sales remained strong as new construction and renovation projects were completed.
With that, I'll return the call to Jeff for his closing remarks.
