-July 29,2021-
With over 400 locations in the US, LL Flooring, formerly Lumber Liquidators, will be coming to Visalia.The new 10,000sf store is in the former DSW shoe store space in the Gateway Shopping Center at 3725 S Mooney.
This week, the company was starting the hiring process to open the store late this summer listing their new Visalia address in posts.
The publicly-traded company is one of the largest hardwood retailers in the US. They have local stores in Bakersfield and Fresno.
Lumber Liquidators was started in 1994 by Tom Sullivan, a building contractor who began purchasing excess wood from other companies.
The retailer ran into problems in a 2013 report by the Environmental Investigation Agency that revealed that Lumber Liquidators’ sourcing practices resulted in the destruction of critically endangered tiger habitats and forests.
A second controversy erupted in 2015 over the level of formaldehyde in the Chinese-made laminate flooring that it was selling. A 60 Minutes expose hurt the firm’s reputation and sent their stock into a tailspin.
Lumber Liquidators’ bad press no doubt resulted in the new name announced last year to LL Flooring. Sales, even in the pandemic year, actually took off last summer and the company reported $1 billion in revenue. Sales were given a boost as more stay-at-home residents did a flurry of home improvement projects including new wood flooring.
In the past year, many of Visalia’s vacant storefronts along Mooney have found new tenants as word seems to have spread that the city is on the grow. Last month the city set a record for new home permits.
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