Hoboken Closes, Terminates 120

The newspaper reported that termination notices sent out to the Wayne headquarters and employees at its main warehouse in Pompton Plains on Monday and again on Tuesday told employees that the offices would be permanently shuttered and the company would "begin to wind down the business immediately.'' The notices gave the workers either 30 or 60 days' notice, according to an employee. 

Prior to the layoffs on Monday, there were about 130 administrative and warehouse employees in the Wayne office at 70 Demarest Ave. and about 120 in Pompton Plains at 100 Alexander Ave., said the employee. In August 2006, Hoboken Wood Flooring began laying off some of the 750 employees working at its facilities on the East Coast. About 250 remain, the employee said.

Chief Financial Officer Lawrence Grossman said in a termination letter obtained by The Record that the company has been unable to find alternatives "to keep the business operating." He wrote that the company's decision to close was based on its "inability to acquire additional funding which we believe would have avoided the need for a facility closing."

Grossman said the company had not filed for bankruptcy and would not comment on whether the company was planning to do so. He would not comment on what is causing the company to close. The distressed housing sector has taken its toll on related businesses such as flooring. Home prices in 20 U.S. metropolitan areas fell in August by the most in six years, according to the closely watched S&P/Case-Shiller home-price index.

"The housing industry definitely impacts our business,'' Deb Hawkinson, executive director of the Washington-based Hardwood Federation, said Wednesday.

Established in 1930 in Hoboken, Hoboken Wood Flooring distributes wood, laminate, resilient, ceramic tile and related materials from 26 locations and has revenue of $400 million. It has design rooms at the D&D Building in New York and at the Boston Design Center.

In 2005, Hoboken Wood Flooring entered the Texas market by opening a branch in Dallas. That same year, Chicago-based private equity firm Code Hennessey and Simmons made a majority equity investment in the company. That December, Hoboken Wood Flooring announced it was merging with Superior Products LLC, an Elkridge, Md.-based floor-covering distributor, to extend its reach into the mid-Atlantic region, according to Code Hennessey's Web site. Financial terms were not disclosed.

But this September, the company closed its Dallas branch and earlier this year, Accord Flooring in Boca Raton, Fla., ended its distributor relationship.

Hoboken Wood Flooring started making changes in top management earlier this year. Chief Executive Officer Joel Lefkowitz stepped down and the company appointed Mark Steele in his place. Steele was president and chief executive of Aurora, Mo.-based Jakel Inc., a maker of electric motors and medical devices.

Hoboken Wood Flooring also began been losing executives who had been with the company for a long time. Gerry Schappell, a 20-year veteran and the company's vice president of sales for Florida, Georgia and Texas, left to join a flooring company in Florida.