Alert – Home Depot rival to shut all 442 stores across 47 states after going bankrupt – but will have huge clearance sale first

LL Flooring – previously known as Lumber Liquidators – is shutting all its stores after going out of business after three decades.

The retailer, one of America’s biggest flooring suppliers, was looking for a buyer after filing for bankruptcy.

Earlier in the summer it had 442 stores, but shut nearly 100 as it looked to cut costs and woo investors. No buyer could be found.

In a letter to customers yesterday, bosses said: ‘It is with a heavy heart that we must let you know that we are going to begin the process of winding down the business and closing all of our stores.’  

LL Flooring will now sell off stock in closing down sales at its remaining shops. These begin tomorrow and will around 12 weeks. Around 2,000 will lose their jobs. 

LL Flooring, with 442 stores across 47 states,is considering Chapter 11 bankruptcy, according to Bloomberg

All existing orders will be fulfilled in 30 days – including those who are waiting for installation. But it will no longer offer installation for anyone who buys flooring in the clearance sale.

The retailer, which specializes in hardwood flooring, has faced falling sales over the past year as families cut back on remodelling their homes. 

It is not the only home improvement and furniture chain to be affected. Appliances retailer Conn’s HomePlus is closing all its 170-plus stores stores. 

Meanwhile, Badcock Home Furniture & More said in July it is shutting all 380 stores. The 120-year-old retailer was based throughout the southern US.

LL Flooring had filed for Chapter 11 protection on August 11, and immediately shut 94 stores to cut costs and make the company attractive to a buyer. 

Chapter 11 allows companies to continue running their business while they work out how to cut costs and renegotiate with firms they owe money to.   

After news last month that LL Flooring was in financial trouble, customers took to Reddit.

‘People are mortgaged to the hilt with properties that need work. They cannot afford the upgrades right now,’ one wrote.

Tom Sullivan founded Lumber Liquidators in 1994 by buying excess wood from companies and reselling it at a discount.

The company at first did business out the back of a pick up truck in Stoughton, Massachusetts.  

Shortly after, Sullivan began negotiating directly with mills as he sought to cut out the wholesalers who acted as middleman – and have lower prices to undercut rivals.

Celebrating two decades in business in 2014, Sullivan said at the time: ‘To look back and see how far we’ve come in 20 years is almost like a dream.

‘We’ve gone from a tiny operation to having served more than two million people and, along the way, changed the way hardwood flooring is sold. 

‘Our customers know that the value and quality of their floors are unmatched.’

Sullivan left the company in 2017 and since then has fallen out with the board. He has tried to take over the company but has so far been rebuffed.

Lumber Liquidators was renamed LL Flooring in 2020.  

Problems for LL Flooring come amidst a widespread ‘retail apocalypse’ which is seeing stores struggle with consumer pullback and increasingly tight margins.

There were almost 2,600 store closures in the first four months of 2024. If that trend continues, almost 8,000 will have been lost by the end of the year.

Last week, it emerged that Big Lots – which has already shut a quarter of its 1,400 stores – is on brink of bankruptcy. The news sunk shares by 50 percent. 

In recent months, Walmart has closed three more of its underperforming locations. Best Buy closed ten in March.

Badcock is another home improvement retailer that had money problems. It had over 380 stores in Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia and Virginia – all of which are closing at an unspecified date 

LL Flooring is the US’s largest specialist flooring company

Dollar stores have been hit hard too, with 99 Cents Only announcing in April it would shutter all 371 of its locations across California, Texas, Arizona and Nevada. 

The 1,000 closures of Family Dollar and its sister company Dollar Tree will happen over the next three years. 

Express – a mall staple – filed for bankruptcy in April and said it would shut 95 Express outlets alongside all of its UpWest stores.    

At the start of May, Rue21 – the teen fashion chain that is a fixture in malls across America –  also said it will shut all  its 543 US stores after going bust.