Home improvement chain with hundreds of stores across the US files for bankruptcy - and shuts 94 stores
One of America's biggest flooring suppliers has filed for bankruptcy - the latest in a long line of retailers this year to face money problems.
LL Flooring will shut 94 of its 442 stores, which are spread out across 47 states, to cut costs and make the company attractive to a buyer.
The retailer, which specializes in hardwood flooring, has faced falling sales over the past year as families cut back on remodelling their homes.
As well as cutting costs under the Chapter 11 bankruptcy, bosses at LL Flooring are talking to several potential buyers for the 30-year-old company.
Bosses say they expect the company will survive and will meet all existing orders while it reorganizes.
LL Flooring is the latest to shutter stores this year, with the US on course to lose nearly 8,000 physical locations by the end of 2024.
LL Flooring, with 442 stores across 47 states,is considering Chapter 11 bankruptcy, according to Bloomberg
For example, Macy's is closing 150 shops - a third of its total - while Dollar Tree is shutting 1,000 and drug store Rite Aid will close almost 800.
LL Flooring filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Sunday night in Delaware. 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 that LL Flooring was mulling bankruptcy, 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.
In recent months, Walmart has closed three more of its underperforming locations. Best Buy closed ten in March.
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.
LL Flooring is the US's largest specialist flooring company
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.
Badcock Home Furniture & More said at the end of July it is closing all its 380 stores dotted around the South after it fell into bankruptcy earlier this year.
And last week, it merged that Big Lots is shutting 315 stores across multiple states as its financial woes get worse.
The discount homeware chain has identified scores of locations across states such as Connecticut, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Hampshire and Vermont which are due to close.
