Paul Stringer, president and CEO of Somerset Hardwood Flooring Inc., retired on July 28 after a career spanning 37 years in the wood flooring industry.
Stringer got a degree in psychology from the University of Tennessee and intended to get his PhD and become a psychologist but detoured from that path after taking a break to go home for a summer. He was hired as the warehouse manager at Hartco and was quickly promoted to director of customer service; he stayed at Hartco until he left after its acquisition by Triangle Pacific in 1996. He then worked for almost three years at Zickgraf Flooring before moving back home to Tennessee to work at Somerset Hardwood Flooring as vice president of sales and marketing and, in 2022, being named as president and CEO.
“I’ve had such a blessed career; that’s the one thing I'm going to miss—everybody that I ever worked with was super good to me,” Stringer said. “I've never run into a person who treated me badly that I've worked for in the industry.”
Stringer also has countless humorous memories. One that sticks out was a lesson he learned working with his mentor and customer Virgil Hendricks, who owned distributor Lockwood Flooring. “He was an icon in the industry, and I was fortunate to get to know him,” Stringer says. “He loved to negotiate unfinished flooring prices; we would debate that every week. One time he called me and he said, “Paul, I'm telling you, you're about 4 cents high on your select and better, but on 2 common I could pay you a nickel more. I said, ‘Really?’ He said, ‘Yeah, you're too cheap.’ I said, ‘OK, Virgil, I’ll give you 4 cents off select, you give me an extra nickel on 2 common, let's build a truck.’ He said, ‘OK that sounds fair.’ So we hang up, and about a day or so later I asked customer service, ‘Did Virgil place a truck?’ ‘Yeah, he sure did—a truckload of select and better!’ He got me; I don't know if he really meant to do it or not, but we got a good laugh out of it. He taught me a valuable lesson: You better get your details before you firm up the deal.”
Another funny memory is from Stringer’s early days at Somerset when he was launching a new line. “I was busy putting everything together, designing displays and getting brochures ready and all this kind of work that goes into it. I had thought we should get a toll-free number, and I had just ordered 50,000 brochures. Well I was in the airport on my way to meet the Hoboken gang to kick off the new line, and I thought I better check that 800 number to make sure it’s working before I tell these salespeople about it. This was around ’99 or 2000, so I didn’t even have a cell phone at the time, so I go to a pay phone and dial 800-404-9663, and this voice comes on: 'Ooo baby, I'm so glad you called…” I go, ‘Oh gosh, I’ve got a porn line on 50,000 brochures; what am I going to do?! … and then I remembered it wasn’t 800, it was 877, so it was OK—but I almost had a heart attack in that airport.”
Somerset held a retirement party for Stringer, and “I couldn't believe all the customers who flew in just for that retirement party—it was humbling,” he says.
So far retirement is “fantastic,” Stringer says. “I’m only on my second week, so I'm not an authority yet, but I think it’s going to be relaxing compared to the last 30-something years.” Stringer and his wife, Nancy, intend to "make no plans" for the rest of the year and enjoy time with their two granddaughters.
