Idaho Contractor Competes for Jobs Nationwide

Pocatello Idaho, February 23--At a time when the spread of big box stores is forcing other family owned businesses to close, the floor covering business which Charles H. Bohrer started in 1923 is competing for contracts throughout the nation, according to the Pocatello Idaho State Journal. The company's secret to success: Don't settle only for the jobs that surface within your region when you can find ample work elsewhere in the country, and even across international borders. At a recent Wall 2 Wall Floor Covering managers' meeting, Bohrer's grandson, William Bohrer, displayed a map of the United States with red dots signifying his company's projects, most of which involved installations on buildings of more than 25,000 square feet. The map had 23 dots representing five years of Wall 2 Wall projects. There was a dot in Northern California, where the Pocatello-based company installed flooring at a Cisco Foods plant. There was a dot in Los Angeles, representing a government building. There were dots in Tucson, Ariz.; Charleston, S.C.; Nova Scotia, Canada, and Kansas City, Mo. Granted, it's no easy task to cover an expansive geographic region. Wall 2 Wall sends its crew to jobs whenever possible. But sometimes, when the company can't staff a project with its own people due to time or distance, it must resort to a back-up plan - StarNet. StarNet is a cooperative owned by its members, who subcontract with one another to complete jobs they couldn't accept otherwise. Wall 2 Wall is a charter member of StarNet, which has 106 members with 180 offices. "If you ask anybody in the industry, they would agree a StarNet member is la creme de la creme," Bohrer said. Bohrer explained StarNet helps because Wall 2 Wall gets some large commercial jobs far from the Gate City from businesses that save time and resources by hiring a single company, Wall 2 Wall, for all of their flooring projects. "They don't want to reinvent the wheel every time they replace their floor covering," Bohrer said. "They would just as soon have someone they can trust with one contract nationally." And some major construction companies, especially in the Salt Lake area, subcontract exclusively with Wall 2 Wall for all of their building projects. Wall 2 Wall has offices in Pocatello, Idaho Falls, Ogden, Boise, Sun Valley and Salt Lake City. The average size of each branch is 25,000 square feet, with Pocatello's branch at 16,000 square feet. Bohrer has no immediate plans to add branches, which would require money for new buildings. Instead, he plans to focus on getting more national jobs. "I'm ambitious, and I would like to continue the growth. The national work, that's the most intriguing opportunity for expansion to me," Bohrer said. On the retail side, Bohrer said Wall 2 Wall has space to maintain an inventory of hundreds of rolls of carpet. Customers get a better idea how carpet will look in their homes by seeing an entire roll rather than a sample, Bohrer said, and Wall 2 Wall has a six day installation guarantee for carpet the company has in stock. Bohrer, who lives in Ketchum, said the Sun Valley Wall 2 Wall branch has done installations in homes of several celebrities, including Bruce Willis, the Ford Automobile family, golfer David Duval and tennis player John McEnroe. Steven Brown, manager of Wall 2 Wall's retail side, said the company carries products of the three largest floor covering makers: Shaw, Mohawk and Beulieu. "The big boxes do have a certain appeal," Brown said. "Our benefit in the marketplace is the specialty element. We're very well versed in one item. (Customers) appreciate our knowledge."

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