By Steven Feldman
PHILADELPHIA—It’s not easy being a flooring distributor in the Eastern region of the U.S. If you are Bayard Sales, you must compete with some of the top wholesalers in the nation: J.J. Haines and Elias Wilf in the mid-Atlantic; NRF, Apollo and, until recently, Hoboken Floors up north.

But Bayard CEO Don Wohlfarth Sr. remains unfazed. “We competed against the Kanes and Bermans of the world,” he said. “They are not around today. Nor is Hoboken.”

So how has Bayard stood the test of time? For starters, operating as a full-line floor covering distributor. “Carpet is still 40% of our business, which is unusual. And although we compete against some large wood distributors, we have found our niche with some of the finest lines— Mercier, Somerset, Kährs and Wickham.”

With headquarters in Philadelphia and a central warehouse in Harrisburg, Bayard’s coverage area extends from the New York metropolitan area (as far north as Rockland County) down to northern West Virginia. And that’s not changing anytime soon, according to Wohlfarth. “We are not looking to expand geographically,” he said. “We are concentrating on where our 55 trucks are, which is where our salespeople are.”

In fact, owning all its trucks and employing its drivers is a major competitive advantage, he said. “We think the efficiency and value is to have our own truck drivers get close with our customers. They have keys to our retailers’ stores. They go in before they open their doors for the day.”

Harold Traister, vice president of sales, agreed. “Our drivers are renowned in the industry as an asset. They are the eyes and ears for Bayard. Many times they tell us a particular retailer is looking for a wood line or padding. They are an extension of our sales force.”

And it is a sales force that sets Bayard apart from the competition via an emphasis on personalized service. “Our salespeople deliver samples as opposed to our dealers getting them direct from the mills,” Traister said. “They put them on the display, go over things with salespeople on the floor, educating them on the line, making sure they know what they are talking about, and things are priced right. We see ourselves as consulting with our dealers. You are not a number at Bayard.”

Having a strong business sense also helps Bayard compete. As such, it did not get hurt as much in 2007 as other companies with sales down about 3%. “We saw that business was going to be tough in 2007,” Wohlfarth said. “What we did was got our overhead down. We did not think we could sell our way out of the problem.”

The first thing Bayard did was cut head count, although the sales force was untouched. Next, Bayard closed its New Castle, Del., branch and added 40,000 more feet in Harrisburg making one inventory area. “New Castle is now strictly for backup inventory,” Wohlfarth said. A byproduct of this is that Bayard can offer better service because everything is now all under one roof. “The warehouse is open 24 hours, five days a week. Any order called in by 4 p.m. is delivered the next day.”

Ask Wohlfarth to talk about where Bayard has an edge in the marketplace, and he is quick to note how the distributor has always been committed to the floor covering specialty store, particularly the small and medium size dealer. “We have always thought that is the base of distribution; we liken it to a cake made up of thousands of retailers. The icing is the major dealer. And that small to medium size dealer is still very viable in the marketplace for one reason: installation.”

Equally important in setting itself apart from many distributors centers around one word: local. Traister summed it up: “We have local ownership working the business six or seven days a week; we have local management living in each area as opposed to someone in Georgia covering other areas; we have local service, where we work with dealers on a one-to-one basis; we have local credit departments, that accept checks and cash while others do not. The bottom line is if a dealer needs help, we are there physically and visibly.”

A third competitive advantage Wohlfarth cites is that Bayard is still heavily into carpet. “In our trading area, who has carpet in any major way? No one. We are a solid carpet distributor. Our advantage is that between resilient and carpet, our trucks are carrying more diversified products to our customers, saving a lot of money on freight.”

Delivery has always been paramount with Bayard. It has four strategically located pickup areas: Philadelphia, Harrisburg, New Castle and Coulmbia, Md., where product is shipped overnight. “No distributor has four major points,” Wohlfarth said. “Many dealers, instead of paying freight, are coming to pick up their goods.”

Other competitive advantages cited by Wohlfarth:

• Installation: Bayard has an installation room in its Philadelphia headquarters. Over the last five years the distributor has certified more than 2,000 installers for Pergo via a day-and-a-half training course. Bayard is also staging training courses for Kährs wood with plans in the works to do the same for carpet hosted by Beaulieu trainers. And it’s not just in-house. “We just finished DuraCeramic clinics in all our territories that attracted more than 400 people.”

• Exhibiting at Surfaces. “I don’t know of any other distributor on the main floor showing its lines. Some of our manufacturers have stopped showing, so we are showing for them. We had a 20 x 40 booth this year.”

The demise of Hoboken Floors, while not necessarily a competitive advantage, certainly created opportunity.

In terms of product, the one line it added was Somerset, which Traister calls a low-cost, quality American producer. Hoboken’s demise also meant the end to one of Bayard’s mid-Atlantic competitors, Superior Floors. And with that, it picked up the well-respected Bill Featherman to be regional manager for Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington and northern Virginia.

Despite the consensus that 2008 will be difficult at every level, Bayard is projecting 10% growth. And if you listen to Wohlfarth, he makes a compelling case. “Our lines are set. Our logistics are set. We have new lines in Somerset and Formica and think Pergo will be strong. And the Dura products from Congoleum continue to do well for us.

“With all that’s going on out there, the challenge is to make is easier for our salespeople to get our products across to the dealer. We need to get to the market faster, better than our competition.”