Steven Feldman

Once upon a time there was a laminate flooring manufacturer that was quietly doing $80 million in business in the U.S. Well, at least the sales volume was quiet given that half of it was OEM. Its president was the consummate showman who put a premium on marketing and promotion. Its Surfaces booth would feature former boxing champion Joe Frazier one year, Joe Montana the next. There were only two problems: the marketing expenditures outweighted sales, and OEM does not offer great margins.

Flash forward to 2007. After a series of purchases, restructuring and management changes, the company we once knew as Witex USA, a subsidiary of the German Witex AG, is now doing business as Witex Flooring, run by three former Witex sales managers: Joey Lester, Darrell Edwards and Matt Thornton, a trinity that does business as LET Industries.

LET, a glorified sales agency, became involved in early 2006 and about a year ago became more involved in the management of the company at the urging of Witex AG. This April, LET took over after a partnership was formed between Edwards and the parent.

Initially, the last thing LET wanted to do was make many changes given the tumultuous history. What LET did do was make subtle changes in product, like adding handscraped and rustic looks to its Town and Country collection and bringing some of the Laura Ashley products into Home and Heritage, its highest-end offering.

For now, the primary focus is on customer service. The previous regime was unable to facilitate goods from Germany to support its customer base, which obviously created issues. But that has all changed. “One of the biggest things had always been about inventory,” Lester said. “We are all from the sales side. Talking to our distributors, we learned we had to offer better service to the customers and have better inventory control.” In illustration, LET has brought operations, inventory and shipping under one roof and brought in 135 containers. In fact, there is now about $3.5 million of inventory in Calhoun, Ga. As well, Witex now houses underlayment, moldings, etc. in its facility.

Next up is a display program that launches this fall. A spiff program geared toward retailers and distributors is also on tap. Marketing kicks in next year.

Lester says the one thing that has remained consistent is product quality, citing a claims ratio less than 0.5% of total sales. “That is our competitive advantage.”

Right now the goal is to reach $25 million in sales for 2008. Witex has the country covered, except for a few areas like the Pacific Northwest, Colorado, Utah and a few holes in Southern Miss. and Louisiana. But that’s OK, Lester said, because the focus is on servicing its existing customers. “We’re not actively looking to fill the holes right now, but if a distributor called we’d certainly get him up and running.”

At the end of the day, the goal here is to not be the biggest, “just do what we say we are going to do.” And that may be the biggest change for Witex.