Type Public Number of locations 383 (Feb 2017) Founded 2004 | Industry Retailing Area served United States, Canada | |
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Traded as NYSE: LL
S&P 600 Component Key people Dennis R. Knowles (President and Chief Executive Officer) Nancy Taylor (Board Chair) Stock price LL (NYSE) US$ 17.95 +0.02 (+0.11%)14 Mar, 4:02 PM GMT-4 - Disclaimer Headquarters Toano, Virginia, United States CEO Dennis R. Knowles (9 Nov 2016–) Founders Thomas M. Sullivan, Tom Sullivan Subsidiaries Lumber Liquidators Services, LLC, Lumber Liquidators, Inc., Lumber Liquidators Leasing, LLC Profiles | ||
The dark days of lumber liquidators
Lumber Liquidators (stylized as LUMBER LIQUIDATOR$) is an American retailer of hardwood flooring.
Contents
Lumber liquidators faces class action lawsuit
Founding
Lumber Liquidators was started in 1994 by Tom Sullivan, a building contractor who began purchasing excess wood from other companies. He then resold the wood from the back of a trucking firm's yard in Stoughton, Massachusetts. Three years later in 1996, the company found their niche market in hardwood flooring. On January 5, 1996, the company's first store opened in West Roxbury, Massachusetts, and sold 150 square feet of floors on the first day. By August of that year, they opened up a second store in Hartford, Connecticut.
Expansion
The company has grown to be one of the largest retailers of hardwood flooring in the United States. It expanded to more than 380 Lumber Liquidators stores with over 2,000 employees in 46 states and Canada. It also launched online e-commence, catalogs, and its Virginia call center.
The company is currently headquartered in Toano, Virginia. The company's CEO is Dennis R. Knowles. The firm is listed and trades under NYSE: LL.
In 2009, Lumber Liquidators began receiving sponsorship from Scripps’ HGTV, DIY Network and ABC’s Extreme Makeover: Home Edition.
Controversies
A 2013 report by the Environmental Investigation Agency revealed that Lumber Liquidators' indiscriminate and poor sourcing practices resulted in the destruction of critically endangered tiger habitats and forests.
Further investigation led to the conviction of a Russian supplier in 2014. Shortly after the conviction Lumber Liquidators lost about twenty percent in stock value for potential violation of the Lacey Act. On October 22, 2015, Lumber Liquidators pleaded guilty in federal court to the illegal importation of hardwood flooring. In February 2016, a federal judge sentenced the company to $13.15 million in penalties, consisting of $7.8 million in criminal fines, $3.15 million in civil forfeiture, $1 million in criminal forfeiture, and $1.2 million to conservation organizations. It was the largest financial penalty ever issued for violating the Lacey Act of 1900. Since then, the Company has released a Lacey Compliance Plan.
During 2015, the company was involved in controversy regarding the level of formaldehyde in the Chinese-made laminate flooring that it was selling. In June 2016, Lumber Liquidators shares surged as much as twenty-five percent after the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission ended a probe of formaldehyde in the company’s flooring without issuing a product recall.