Ark Floors, a year-old wood flooring manufacturer located about 16 miles east of Pasadena, Calif., recently hired former Hoboken Floors president Ira Lefkowitz as CEO. Under his leadership, the company is planning a huge product push at the upcoming Surfaces show with a rollout of 40 new exotic and distressed products. The move is set to more than double Ark Floors’ hardwood flooring line.

Lefkowitz left Hoboken Floors earlier this year as part of a management change at the troubled distributor. According to Ark Floors’ North American sales manager Phil Reifinger, Lefkowitz has already been making a “big impact” at Ark Floors.

“We hired Ira about six weeks ago as CEO, and he’s an awesome guy with a lot of inside knowledge,” said Reifinger, who has been with Ark Floors for about nine months. He added that the company’s staff includes two regional sales managers, a marketing manager, six office support professionals, and several logistics and warehouse personnel. He noted that the company expects to hire two additional regional sales managers, including a post on the East Coast where the company hopes to open a new warehouse “by the first or second quarter of next year.”

Ark Floors is well-positioned in the wood flooring segment and has already partnered with “a handful of the top 20 distributors, and we’re in discussions to bring even more of them on board,” Reifinger noted.

The company is the U.S. arm of A &W (Shanghai) Woods Co., one of the largest flooring manufacturers and importers of Brazilian timber in China, according to Reifinger. “We’ve got a very strong factory behind us with tremendous resources,” he says. “The company has a tremendous supply of certain Brazilian species, and some African and Russian species as well.”

Ark Floors operates a 65,000 sq. ft. warehouse and office space in Irwindale. The company said it will move to nearby El Monte, Calif., early next year. Currently, the address is 22393 Tifal Ave., Irwindale, CA 91010. For more information, call (800) 918-6188, fax (626) 357-8593 or visit www.ark-floors.com.