LL Flooring, formerly known as Lumber Liquidators, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization Aug. 11 and plans to close 94 stores, including one in St. Augustine, in 31 states.
The St. Augustine store is in the Publix-anchored Cobblestone Village at St. Augustine shopping center at 330 CBL Drive at southwest Florida 312 West and Old Moultrie Road, west of U.S. 1. The sale started Aug. 9 and ends by Sept. 29, unless extended.
LL Flooring, based in Richmond, Virginia, plans to keep more than 300 stores open, including two in Jacksonville at 624 Beauty Rest Ave. at southwest Cassat Avenue and Interstate 10 in Westside and at 9300 Arlington Expressway in the Regency area.
LL Flooring offers more than 500 types of hard surface flooring and began offering carpet in 2023. The retailer also offers flooring underlayments, tools and third-party installation services.
The RetailDive.com trade news site said LL Flooring had historically been a successful business, but recent challenges squeezed the company’s liquidity to unsustainable levels.
The site said lower levels of home improvement, decreased discretionary spending and declining demand in the sector following highs during the early months of the pandemic contributed to LL Flooring’s setbacks, according to Chief Restructuring Officer Holly Etlin in court documents.
The company said a news release Aug. 11 that it filed for voluntary reorganization in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware and that it intends to use proceedings to pursue a going-concern sale of its business.
“LL Flooring is generally operating in the normal course through this process and remains focused on providing customers with a broad range of hard and soft surface flooring and an exceptional shopping experience,” the release said.
“The Company has more than 300 continuing stores across the U.S. that, along with its online platform, are open and continuing to serve customers with few changes to store operations and policies. In addition, LL Flooring entered into an agreement with Hilco Merchant Resources, LLC, to assist the Company in its recently initiated store closing sales at 94 of its locations. Those 94 stores will remain open and serving customers through this closing process.”
Those stores are in 31 states.
Florida has 33 stores. In addition to St. Augustine, those closing are in Clearwater, Florida City, Gainesville and Tampa.
The company said it remains in active negotiations with multiple bidders and hopes to seek bankruptcy court approval of a sale of its business in the first few weeks of the Chapter 11 proceedings.
RetailDive.com said LL Florida intends to find a stalking horse bidder by Aug. 26. If it cannot, LL Flooring plans to pursue a liquidation process for all its stores.
Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP is serving as legal counsel, Houlihan Lokey is serving as financial adviser and AlixPartners LLP is the restructuring adviser to the Company.
RetailDive.com said LL Florida reported liabilities of $100 million to $500 million and assets of $500 million to $1 billion.
Court documents show the company’s top five creditors are collectively owed nearly $20 million. LL Flooring said it has a commitment for $130 million in debtor-in-possession financing from its existing lenders.
The company was founded in 1994 as Lumber Liquidators. In 2005, the company was acquired by private equity firm TA Associates, and in 2007, it completed its initial public offering.
RetailDive.com said a 2015 investigative segment by CBS’ “60 Minutes” also hurt the company’s reputation and sales, Etlin said in court documents. The news report alleged that imported laminate flooring from China had unsafe levels of formaldehyde. Later that year, the company pleaded guilty in federal court to environmental crime charges and false statements.
The site said the company settled related claims with California state officials, as well as consumer-led class action lawsuits. The “60 Minutes” segment “had a significant negative impact on the Company’s reputation” and the flooring retailer sought to revive its reputation by rebranding to LL Flooring in 2022.
RetailDive.com said about 1,960 people work for the company. Nearly all of them are full-time and about 71%, work in retail stores.
The company also has three distribution centers in California, Texas and Virginia.