National Flooring Distributors (Louisville, Ky.), which purchased the remainder of distributor Floor Style Products in July, has resurrected another wood flooring brand undercut by the housing bust. This time, NFD has purchased the Canterbury Flooring manufacturing operations and brand after its former owners closed shop in 2009 after filing Chapter 7 bankruptcy, or liquidation bankruptcy.
The purchase price was not disclosed. All of the former company's intangible assets, inventory, manufacturing equipment, land and buildings were included in the purchase, which NFD's President Lee Harmeling completed on Oct. 3.
"The former owners had invested several million dollars in a new building and modern equipment," Harmeling said of the 31,500-square-foot manufacturing operation, which sits on a little more than three acres of land about an hour's drive north of Charlotte in Mocksville, N.C.
NFD will manufacture prefinished, unfinished, solid and engineered wood flooring under the Canterbury brand, and it will continue Canterbury's specialization in custom flooring, or flooring to order. Exotic species, wide planks and long lengths will all be part of future Canterbury offerings, Harmeling said, and down the line Canterbury will offer architectural trim products. The newly purchased plant has capacity for 20,000 square feet per eight-hour shift.
Currently, Harmeling is in the middle of ramping up the Mocksville facility. In the future, he plans on opening a Floor Style Products branch in Mocksville as a distribution and retail point. In his view, it was a rare opportunity for him to purchase a manufacturing facility on the scale of the one in Mocksville; the opportunity was the result of good timing and the effects of a poor economy on the wood flooring industry's bigger players.
"It's a great facility," Harmeling said, adding that he thinks the biggest manufacturers in the industry would love to have that capacity. "In years past, I wouldn't even have had a shot at something like this … It's a pretty good opportunity for me, and we'll see what we can make out of it."
