2,000 employees to lose jobs as LL Flooring, formerly Lumber Liquidators, ceases operations

LL Flooring, a competitor of Home Depot and Lowe’s, is going out of business. The company, founded in 1993 and previously called Lumber Liquidators, has been one of the biggest flooring suppliers in the U.S. for decades.

In an announcement Friday, president and CEO Charles Tyson said the company will close all its stores over the next 12 weeks. “It is with a heavy heart that we must let you know that we are going to begin the process of winding down LL Flooring’s business and closing all of our stores,” Tyson said in a statement. “This is not the outcome that any of us had hoped for.”

The move comes after LL Flooring closed nearly 100 of its 442 stores earlier this year, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, and began searching for a buyer. At the time, Tyson said that “a challenging macro environment” was to blame for the store’s challenges.

While the company was reportedly negotiating with several bidders, it did not result in a sale. The company determined that it could bring the maximum value to its creditors by selling off its assets, and selling off merchandise with closing sales at its stores before ultimately shutting down.

Those going-out-of-business sales will begin Friday at the around 200 remaining stores before winding down operations over the next three months.

Most LL Flooring locations (37) are in California, followed by Florida (32), Texas (26), Pennsylvania (21), and New York State (21). Around 2,000 employees will lose their jobs as a result of the closures. The company also said that already placed flooring-installation orders will be completed over the next 30 days, but that no new installation orders will be accepted.

The end of LL Flooring comes as home improvement stores have been struggling against inflation and penny-pinching families. With Americans cutting costs wherever they can, updating their homes seems to be one area they can afford to trim. As a result, stores that specialize in remodeling have seen sales take a deep dive, and several have ceased operations.

Conn’s HomePlus, which only last December purchased W.S. Badcock and its more than 370 Badcock Home Furniture & More stores, filed for Chapter 11 in July, announcing its plan to close at least 70 of its 170 Conn’s stores. Within days, the trade FurnitureToday reported that Conn’s was in the process of shuttering all of its nearly 600 Conn’s and Badcock locations, with liquidation sales to be completed by October 31, 2024. And Big Lots, which has closed a quarter of its stores, recently announced another 315 were closing.

“We sincerely appreciate the loyalty of our customers over the last three decades,” LL Flooring CEO Tyson said in the announcement, “and as we begin to wind down operations and close our stores, we are committed to doing so as smoothly as possible to minimize the impact on you, our associates, and the communities we serve.”