In the "bringing back the band" department, LL Flooring stores in Delaware and elsewhere have returned to the Lumber Liquidators name after the company emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings in Wilmington.
At first, it appeared that all LL stores would close, founder Tom Sullivan bought back a much smaller company for a price in the neighborhood of $40 million.
About half of the company's stores have closed or moved into going out of business mode while operating under the LL Flooring name. All Delaware stores made the cut, due in part to the state's lack of a sales tax and locations in the East Coast heartland of the company.
Sullivan, who started the business in the Boston area in the ‘90s, brought back a name that sometimes sent people to what appeared to be a discount lumberyard. Somehow, the name and the use of its house-brand flooring worked.
It helped that Americans were ditching their carpets for hardwoods and laminates, with a lucky few in older homes finding salvageable hardwood under their carpets.
It didn't hurt that the wave of home improvement TV shows extolled the virtues of hardwood. Variations such as laminates and vinyl plank added to the momentum.
Then came the worst thing to happen to a publicly traded company when Lumber Liquidators was the target of a 2015 60 Minutes investigation into formaldehyde levels in China-made flooring.
Sullivan later left the company and formed a private equity firm with holdings that include Cabinets to Go and a company that imports French wine. Sullivan also owns vineyards in that nation. (Estimates of his net worth range from a quarter of a billion to billionaire territory).
The focus at Lumber Liquidators is back on discounting - hence the old name - a departure from past management positioning the company as a semi-upscale place to buy flooring,. Still, stores tended to be in less flashy areas with lower rents in keeping with the original concept.
The updated strategy was not working, and an increasingly desperate company resorted to selling carpets in its final days.
Lumber Liquidators still faces serious challenges, including sluggish consumer spending for home improvements that dented the bottom lines of big box competitors Home Depot, Lowes, and Floor and Decor.
Regional rivals include a 14-store group with a discount and promotional focus that got its name from its first location near Wilmington (New Castle) Airport.
The stores, owned by the Longwell family, operate under the Airbase, Lomax, and Carpet and Tile Mart names in an area extending from the Harrisburg region to the Atlantic City area.
The stores still sell a lot of carpeting but have a solid presence in flooring.
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