Lumber Liquidators Keeps Growing

Richmond, VA, Jan. 26--Thomas Sullivan built his multimillion-dollar business on a pile of discarded wood, according to the Richmond Times-Dispatch. The edges were weathered and the packaging was gray. "But the material was in perfect condition," he said. He bought a truckload from the lumberyard and used some for his deck building business. He sold the rest one weekend behind a warehouse at the end of a dead end street outside of Boston. The sale marked the start of a business expected to generate $150 million in revenue this year. At the time, Sullivan had no forklift. The business brought in $102 million last year and $25 million in 2000, the year after Sullivan opened operations in Colonial Heights. Lumber Liquidators sells unfinished and prefinished hardwood flooring at a discount to the public and to contractors. Sullivan says his flooring sells for about half the price of comparable products at home building stores. The Web site, www.lumberliquidators.com, claims "the lowest prices on hardwood flooring anywhere." The most popular products are finished Brazilian cherry and red oak, Sullivan said. They sell for $4.95 a square foot. The wood is packaged in boxes containing 20 square feet of flooring each. The company also sells American cherry, walnut, ash, beech, birch and hickory, and exotics, such as Bolivian rosewood, Australian cypress and Brazilian cherry, koa, mesquite and teak. "Anyone could have done it; the opportunity was there," said Sullivan, 44. Sullivan opened his first retail store in 1996 in the Boston area--and bought his first forklift. The heart of the operation is in Colonial Heights, VA. The site employs about 120 people. Another 120 work at other stores and warehouses across the country. Sullivan discovered Colonial Heights by "driving down the highway," he said. He was looking for a central distribution site for his growing business. His company ships hardwoods from Colonial Heights to 41 stores across the country and to customers across the globe, including Spain, Portugal, the United Kingdom, Japan and Saudi Arabia. The site is a finishing plant for Bellawood, the brand name for Lumber Liquidators. Pieces of milled wood are placed on a roller, then ferried through a sanding machine and topped with eight finishing coats. Boxes of wood are stacked high. Trucks are backed up to the plant. Some are loaded with unfinished and unboxed product, others are packed for customer shipments. A room is used to store floor molding, an offshoot of the flooring business. A container truck is retrofitted to recycle the finishes.