The company formerly known as Lumber Liquidators is going out of business
By Jordan Valinsky, CNN
New York (CNN) — LL Flooring, formerly known as Lumber Liquidators, is going out of business after the bankrupt company failed to find a buyer to rescue the 30-year-old retailer.
As a result, LL Flooring will liquidate. Sales at its remaining 200 stores will begin on September 6, setting in motion an “orderly wind-down of operations” that will be completed in about 12 weeks. Roughly 2,000 workers will lose their jobs.
LL Flooring started out as Lumber Liquidators about three decades ago as a company that bought and sold excess inventory. The company expanded, and currently sells about 500 varieties of hard-surface floors. LL Flooring had more than 400 locations at its peak in 2018.
The company, which filed for Chapter 11 just three weeks ago, started closing 94 locations and began searching for a buyer. The retailer previously said it was in “active negotiations with multiple bidders.” However, in a new statement, the company said those “discussions have not resulted in an offer, with the necessary financing, that would maximize the value of LL Flooring.”
LL Flooring said instead that “a sale of the company’s individual assets, holding closing sales at our stores and winding down the business will deliver the most value to its creditors.”
“As a result, 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,” the company said in a letter to customers. “This is not the outcome that any of us had hoped for.”
Customers’ flooring orders will be fulfilled within 30 days, the company said, but new installation appointments will stop after September 6.
LL Flooring changed its name from Lumber Liquidators in 2021 following a controversial few years.
In 2015, a “60 Minutes” investigation aired an undercover video showing the company’s suppliers saying that they provided the company products with formaldehyde that exceeded regulatory standards.
Three years later, Lumber Liquidators paid $36 million to settle class-action lawsuits brought by customers who bought the laminate between 2009 and 2015. The company did not admit wrongdoing in the settlement agreement.
In 2019, the company agreed to pay $33 million in penalties for misleading investors about the formaldehyde.
LL Flooring’s closure also adds to the growing list of well-known retailers disappearing because customers are cutting back spending on non-essential items.
That has resulted in furniture chains Z Gallerie and Mitchell Gold + Bob Williams filing for bankruptcy within the past year, and Wayfair drastically reducing its workforce.
Conn’s HomePlus, a 134-year-old furniture and electronics retailer, recently filed for bankruptcy and is in the process of closing all of its stores. Most recently, Big Lots said it plans to shutter a quarter of its stores.
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