Pompano Beach, FL, March 14-- Atlanta-based Floor & Décor has leased an 86,000-square-foot warehouse in Pompano Beach, with plans to open its first store in the region early this summer, according to the South Florida Business Journal.
The store will employ about 50.
The expanding 11-store chain also is scouting for big-box buildings in Miami-Dade and Palm Beach counties, said Greg Masin of Cushman & Wakefield, the brokerage hired to handle the real estate search.
Floor & Décor could open as many as four South Florida stores, its top executive said.
"We are like the Costco of flooring," CEO Mike Froning said.
The comparison is an apt one in relationship to store appearances, volume buying and instant availability of vast inventory.
The flooring chain sells ceramic tile, marble, hardwoods and almost any other hard-floor product. It doesn't sell carpet, which still reigns as the king of floors, despite steady gains in hard-surface merchandise.
Hard-flooring products generated $5.8 billion in manufacturing output in 2002, according to published research. Carpet consumption generated $12.3 billion.
It is the see-a-variety-and-get-it-now niche that Floor & Décor hopes to capitalize on to steal business away from competitors.
"The flooring industry is one of the last bastions of retail where you are still at the mercy of suppliers," Froning said.
