Lumber Liquidators
Hardwood flooring is a great upgrade to most American homes, and there is one retailer that tends to stand out above the rest. While Home Depot and Lowes do substantial business in this market, there has been one company that has made a name for itself selling hardwood flooring to consumers.
Built in 1993, Lumber Liquidators was started by Tom Sullivan. Sullivan was a former contractor who got the idea to purchase excess wood from other companies that had an overstock. Construction is a game of estimates, so it’s common for some companies to over-estimate the supplies they need or order in bulk to save money with extra supplies as the result.
Sullivan would re-sell the wood he bought to a local trucking yard. This informal arrangement was like the corner stone of the company. That was back in 1993, but three years later the company would pivot entirely to hardwood flooring.
They opened their first store in January of 1996, in the town of Roxbury Massachusetts. Their first day went well, selling 150 square feet. The trend continued on the upswing, and by August of that year the company had its second store in Hartford Connecticut.
Today, Lumber Liquidators is one of the largest hardwood flooring retailers in the US. It has 220 stores spread across 45 states, with more than 1,000 employees on payroll. It also has an online catalogue, where customers can place orders, and a call center to deal with customer service concerns the website can’t answer.
Samuel Phineas Upham is an investor at a family office/ hedgefund, where he focuses on special situation illiquid investing. Before this position, Phin Upham was working at Morgan Stanley in the Media and Telecom group. You may contact Phin on his Samuel Phineas Upham website or LinkedIn.