By Sarah Zimmerman
With a combined total of over 190 years of industry knowledge, the team at Erickson’s Flooring & Supply in Fermdale, Mich., prides itself on its value-added training culture, family-run feel and extensive experience to drive business and serve and increase partner/customer profitability. “We’ve always been committed to training our customers, whether that meant hosting installation clinics at the customers’ stores or bringing manufacturers in to host specialized product training at Erickson’s facilities,” said David Powell, marketing director.

In fact, he noted the company finds the benefits of a trained staff and customers to be so tremendous that its core mission statement—to deliver the best value, quality, cost and service—is believed to be best served through ongoing, comprehensive training programs.

“Training promotes better margins, higher quality products sold, happier consumer, fewer claims and call backs, and overall better business practices,” Powell explained. “By focusing on training and our core mission, we avoid the lowest common denominator of price, which has resulted in strong, long-term, incremental growth for us, our customers and our manufacturing partners.”

A family business

Known as “the wood guys” in its market, Erickson’s began on founder Art Erickson’s side porch in 1943. With a strong family history in wooden craftsmanship (Norwegian wooden boat building), working with wood came as second nature, and Erickson’s quickly began laying, sanding and finishing solid wood floors.

By the end of WWII, a group of veterans—also with wood working backgrounds—landed at Erickson’s, and by the ’60s, the company was running 40 crews under Leonard Howay’s direction. Howay took over the business in 1971, when Erickson retired. Four years later, a distributor was born, as Erickson’s devoted itself strictly to hardwood distribution across the Midwest.

In the late ’70s, Dick Walters was hired as a salesman for Erickson’s, and later, in 1983, he and his wife Diane purchased the hardwood distributor, which continued functioning as a family-run business.

Over the last 15 years or so, Erickson’s has expanded its local brick-and-mortar presence with four additional locations— Grand Rapids, Mich.; Chicago; Indianapolis; and most recently, Kalamazoo, Mich.—servicing an even larger Midwest geography. And, although wood is still its specialty—“we have sawdust in our veins”—Erickson’s has also sold VCT, sheet vinyl, LVT and laminate over the years. It currently offers customers a wide selection of prefinished and unfinished hardwood, bamboo, cork, laminate and, most recently, Torlys leather Smart Flooring.

“We actively serve several thousand customers in the retail and sand-and-finish channel for new construction and residential replacement and remodel,” Powell said. “And though we continue expanding—currently into the contract, commercial and multi-use sector—Erickson’s still very much embodies the family-owned business persona it always had.”

Dick still goes out back to sweep up the warehouse and put away inventory, and Diane makes sure everyone has their Erickson’s clothing orders squared away, he recited.

Service with a smile

The company also gives back to its local communities by hosting an annual “No Kiddie without Christmas” fundraiser—since 1983—and participating in several other charities: Volunteers of America, the Focus Hope walk, local AIDS research and awareness fundraisers and through donations of flooring materials to the local Habitat for Humanity.

Not only does Erickson’s work hard at bettering its community, it also focuses on providing its customers and partners with top- notch service, products and programs, Powell said, pointing to three focal points: quality, cost and service. “Delivering a consistently quality product at competitive pricing with the sales and logistics services our customers need will always be key,” he explained. “We approach our customers from a truly value add, account management perspective.”

For example, rather than walking in and saying, “Here’s our price,” Erickson’s looks at what it can offer its customers that will make them more profitable: “What is the return on investment for each display in their showroom? What costs them money— utilities, rent, employees, etc.? How can we improve their overall success and profitability?”

And, often, education and training are again the answers. Erickson’s has developed training formats that now serve as templates for many other organizations, and the company was not only a founding member of the NWFA ( National Wood Flooring Association) but has been a member of the North American Association of Floor Covering Distributors (NAFCD) for over 20 years. Training topics to better its own staff and the industry as a whole include such items as sales processes for the retail sales person, complaint management, many types of installation training and more, Powell noted.

Worth the research

With such a strong foundation, years of expertise and core beliefs founded in education and training, it was only a matter of time before Torlys teamed up with Erickson’s. “As I came to know Al Maghes (vice president of sales and marketing for Erickson’s), Dick Walters and Dave Powell, and their wealth of dedicated headquarters and field associates, and to simply see how they run all facets of their business— sales, logistics, finance, housekeeping, daily shipping, ad infinitum—they grew bigger than the competition in opportunity and importance to me,” said Charlie Lammers, general manager for Torlys, who studied the distributor carefully before recently partnering with it.

However, after careful examination, the decision was quite simple, he said, and Erickson’s now carries Torlys exclusively in the upper Midwest market, which is no simple task as the manufacturer asks for 500 square feet of boutique-like showroom space at retail.

“I believed them to be sincere and professionally hungry for our product offerings, and they have added the most difficult and prestigious dealers to our roster,” Lammers said. And, as Lammers found out via his research, this reputation precedes Erickson’s. “After speaking with all of its sales personnel and at least 100 customers, I’ve found Erickson’s to be true veterans, well liked across the board and to be constructed in the image and likeness that Al and Dick demand.”

Lastly, he pointed to the company’s on-time payments, dedication, success with product launches and retrofits and mostly, the mortar of ethics that pervades the entire group as honorable. “I have become a great fan of Erickson’s and would put my personal reputation on the line as a reference. They tell it like it is from experience and are true partners in success.”