Banff, Alberta, Canada—The National Floorcovering Alliance includes 40 of the finest flooring retailers in North America, but that doesn’t mean they are not without their challenges. What separates this group from others is their ability to find creative ways to overcome obstacles, whether they be economic related, labor related or, more recently, dealing with changes in manufacturers’ pricing policies.
Finding quality individuals remains a constant issue, whether it be on the sales floor or on the installation side. For Scott Browne, owner of Macco’s Floor Covering Center with five Wisconsin locations, the good news is that business is holding up. The bad news is locating enough installers to serve the business. “We have more sales than we can install in a timely fashion,” he told FCNews. “What we’ve done over the last 18 months is develop in-store training bays and try to bring credentials alongside to our installation team, making them feel more confident in the education they got from us.”
To attract new installers, Macco’s is working with local high schools and attending job fairs. “Social media posts have also been very successful,” Browne shared. “Our HR director has pulled in quite a few people looking for a career change or young people looking to get into the trades.”
It’s the same story at ICC Floors Plus in Indianapolis, where Jason Waggoner, business development manager, said installation labor has been a major pain point for the past few years. The solution? “We’ve tried to cultivate more of a culture with our installers; instead of just bringing them in, we make them want to be part of our team and work for us.”
Whereas installation remains a challenge for many, Jason McSwain, owner of the nine-store McSwain Carpets and Floors in Cincinnati and Dayton, Ohio, has a different issue: salespeople. Not so much finding them, but getting them up to speed. “It’s exciting to bring your next 10-, 20-year salespeople on board, but they need to learn our products quickly,” he said. “It’s a much larger group of products. That’s a challenge.”Fortunately, McSwain is not having a hard time finding good salespeople. “The issue is what do you do with them quickly? They have expectations. They want to get out and sell fast, but you’d rather get them [trained] before they get out there. So finding that balance can sometimes be a challenge.”
It’s much the same north of the border at Floortrends in Peterborough, Ontario, Canada. “It’s a very particular type of person who does the work we do, and it’s managing the expectations for how quickly they want to progress, what they expect to earn, training, different approaches to work and trying to navigate that within our current structure,” Jessica Arscott, vice president, told FCNews.
Susan Hadinger, owner of Hadinger’s in Naples, Fla., agreed that finding qualified people that will fit within its culture is a challenge “because we’re not for everybody.” Hadinger is looking into getting interns and getting pickier during the interview process. “We’ve had a few recently that were just [so-so], and then you train them, they stay for a little while and then they’re gone.”
Economic uncertainty
Just about every flooring retailer is dealing with some economic-related issue, but probably none more so than those in California. Such is the case for Flooring 101 with seven stores in Ventura County. “I think the challenge we face right now in California is the cost of living; salaried employees basically need to bring in $150,000 base to own a home or buy a home or live comfortably with groceries and gas,” said Ian Newton, general manager and also NFA president. “We’ve seen the minimum wage in California go to where McDonald’s must pay their workers at least $20 an hour under legislation signed last year by the governor. So we had to increase the salaries of our admin and warehouse people accordingly.”
Raising prices is one way that Flooring 101 combats this, but it’s not the only trick in the playbook. “We also have to look at ways to give consumers more value,” Newton explained. “It’s not necessarily being able to charge more. We have to be able to be more cost-effective on how we buy and how we operate, too. You don’t always have the opportunity to raise your prices because a lot of our competition are mom-and-pop stores that don’t have the overhead like we have.”
Nebraska Furniture Mart, the largest NFA retailer, cites an overall soft economy as its biggest enemy for the last three months. “It’s driving inconsistencies in traffic levels,” said David Chambers, director of flooring, NFM. “We’re battling it by getting exceptionally creative with our marketing campaigns and promotions. We find pockets of success, but we just can’t get sustained traffic increases right now.” His solution? Sales.
While the economy and labor are two major challenges, one issue currently impacting many retailers’ bottom lines was the decision last year by most of the carpet mills to do away with terms. (Terms is a 5% discount for paying within 10 days of invoice.) For the bigger retailers, that decision could cost well into the six figures. “While that was a huge financial hit to the group, most of us on an individual level were able to recoup most of that with different programs,” Newton said. “And I think a lot of the vendors are putting together programs to bring more value to the group to offset some of that.”
Hadinger noted that it was not something NFA members enjoyed, but everyone got through it—some by increasing business with mills that kept terms intact.
Membership movement
The NFA lost a couple members recently due to acquisitions. But that doesn’t mean the group is rushing to fill those voids. “We obviously want growth within the group, but we’re going to be selective on who we look for and where we look,” Newton said. “It has to be the right fit, the right volume; there’s quite a large criteria [that must be met] to being part of the group.” He added that the group has a target list it is currently vetting.
Newton said the NFA is not necessarily concerned about the loss of a few members, but attrition is a real possibility down the road. “We are looking at the age of some of the members of the group and their transition plans.”
At the same time, the group is stronger because of recent additions. “Jordan’s [from Van- couver] just celebrated their 95th anniversary and has been a great addition,” McSwain said. “There’s been so much camaraderie. They contribute a lot.”
He also cited Molyneaux Home in the Pittsburgh area. “Pat Molyneaux has pulled peo- ple together outside of meetings to do Zoom calls and tackle a topic very quickly,” McSwain said.
Despite losing a few members, one thing that will not change is geographical exclusivity. There was some thought that could change when last year the NFA did away with its “one-and-done” rule, where prospective members needed to be approved unanimously by the group.
“We didn’t change the bylaws to allow multiple members to be in the same area,” Chambers said. “[But] now it’s more fair, and we still have a great understanding about where we go and where we don’t go.”
Newton agreed. “The beauty of the NFA is that connection, that idea sharing, the relationships. That’s how this was set up by our forefathers that makes the strength of the group.”
New vendors
Every year the NFA adds a vendor or two, either tier 1 or tier 2. The idea is partnering with a supplier that can bring value to the group. One of the more recent additions is IFC, owned by the Dossche family.
What do they bring to the table? “They’ve been very important to the group being a little bit more nimble than some and creating exclusive collections and private-label programs on premium products,” Browne said. “Anytime a member gets exclusivity in their market or exclusivity in pricing, it’s a really big deal and most of us take advantage of that.”
