Two former executives of what once was among Arkansas' biggest LBM operations plan to launch a new store in the state's northwest corner late this month.
Encore Flooring and Building Products will sell a wide a variety of flooring types as well as lighting, doors, fireplaces, deco hardware, and windows, Brent Hanby wrote in an e-mail to ProSales. The 18,000-square-foot store will be based in Springdale, Ark., and will begin with 11 employees, but the business won't stop there. Hanby and co-founder Joe Frame plan to add other categories to the Springdale store as it grows as well as open other retail stores.
Encore will serve professional contractors, multifamily builders and small commercial contractors as well as retail customers, Hanby wrote.
The "Encore" name fits the founders, because both were executives at National Home Centers. Springdale-based National routinely ranked among the nation's biggest construction supply companies, peaking at 10 retail locations in three states with sales of nearly $200 million. Then the housing recession forced National to enter Chapter 11 bankruptcy in December 2009. In April 2010, Stock Building Supply announced it had acquired National's remaining four stores and its corporate headquarters.
Frame was a senior vice president of operations and general manager of several National facilities, including one at Springdale that Hanby said did $100 million in sales in 2005 and employed 350 people. Hanby worked 25 years at National, culminating his career there as the company's executive vice president and chief financial officer.
