When I’m doing training for retail flooring chains or talks at floor covering association dinners, I always include a section on “what needs to be said” to prospective buyers.
In 1991, my nephew, Jody Skaggs, and I had worked together for eight years for two separate flooring contractors building their commercial departments from one that was labor-only in the hospitality business and the other was a residential flooring company.
A healthy business grows just like a healthy child. The most important and defining characteristic – the personality of the business – is developed early and never really changes, while its outward appearance can seem to change overnight.
From showroom management to inventory control—and everything in between—flooring-specific software systems are helping retailers run their operations smoothly, and taking their businesses to the next level of profitability and efficiency.
At Priority Floors, we have a different overall approach to the flooring business. Generally a flooring company focuses on a single market segment such as multifamily replacement, retail, builder, commercial, etc. If a dealer services multiple market segments, rarely are they a dominant player in more than one segment.
A lot has been happening at Beaulieu Commercial in the past few months and at the epicenter of the activity is Steve Hillis, the president. Steve has been there and done that in all of the best places in the commercial floor covering business and was just about ready to take himself out of circulation and, yes, retire.