Lewisville, Tex.—Less than four years ago, LDBrinkman was the largest distributor of floor covering products in North America with approximate annual sales of $400 million. As April neared its end, the wholesaler filed for bankruptcy protection so as to avoid ending its 43-year-old run as one of the industry’s and country’s premier distributorships. Jeff Sills, LDBrinkman’s president, told FCNews that troubles began when the current ownership re-acquired the company from Beaulieu of America early last year (FCNews, March 4/11, 2002). “When we took the company back over,” he explained, “Brinkman’s massive infrastructure was still in place but the distribution business was doing less volume than before. So, we needed to recapture that business in order to pay expenses. “Unfortunately,” Sills continued, “we could not get the volume up as quickly as we needed and, therefore, had to file for bankruptcy protection.”

At press time, Brinkman officials were still putting together a plan of reorganization to present to the courts. “It’s been a hectic time these last few days,” Sills commented, “especially because we’ve never done anything like this before.” While no formal plan has been presented to the Bankruptcy Court, he did say officials “have made a number of major steps to ensure our customers continue to be serviced at the same time we cut back on expenses.” To start with, Brinkman is pulling its physical presence back from 13 locations to three facilities, its headquarters here as well as distribution centers in Ontario and Sacramento, Calif. Though branches have been closed, Sills said the company plans to “uphold and service all orders that have been placed through these locations as well as to continue to take care of the dealers who have relied on us in these areas.” To do this, Brinkman will utilize common carriers.

In addition, it has retained selective salespeople to maintain and help dealers in these affected territories. Despite the fact there’s been some minor confusion in the transition, he noted, “every order and person is being satisfied. That’s what we’ve done best for all these years and it’s not going to stop now. Our vendors have been supportive of us in the ordeal and we hope that our customers will continue to support us.” Support is what it is all about, said John Woolsey, director of marketing for Anderson Hardwood Floors. “Brinkman has chosen to reorganize. It will have to do some adjusting to fix the pieces, but we still value our relationship and think it’s a great company run by great people. “As far as we are concerned,” he added, “Brinkman is still a customer of Anderson’s. We still have our programs with it and support management in its endeavor to right the ship.”

Woolsey noted the flooring industry has always been about family and relationships “and you just don’t abandon a family member when it has problems. During these times we need to band together and support that member as best we can. Especially in this case because Brinkman has such a rich history.” Brinkman was founded by Lloyd D. Brinkman and Levon Ezell in 1960 as a distributor of Congoleum-Nairn products in the Dallas-Ft. Worth area. Through a series of mergers and acquisitions, namely joining forces with Giffen Industries in the late 1960s, Brinkman grew like no other wholesaler in the industry ever had. In 1975, when Giffen combined its floor covering distribution divisions under the Brinkman umbrella, it serviced dealers in 38 states. When management sold Brinkman and its sister mill Holleytex to Beaulieu at the end of 1999, the company was reportedly doing $400 million a year (FCNews, Jan. 3, 2000). Last year, when Beaulieu was selling off properties to get out of its fi nancial woes, Ezell, along with Tom Karol, who had been running Brinkman prior to Beaulieu taking over, and Eddie Lesok, a long-time associate, re-acquired the distribution aspect of the company.