Two decades after launching Direct Flooring when he was only 21 years old, Jordan Parker has expanded its luxury vinyl, hardwood and rug flooring retail operation to three stores and says he is eager to expand his business to other markets.
Last month, Parker opened his biggest store on Rossville Boulevard, just a block away from where he located his first warehouse five years ago. Through a partnership, Jordan Parker and his wife, Florina, bought a brick warehouse at 5013 Rossville Blvd. in February and in only three months converted the 120-year-old structure into a 19,606-square-foot store, warehouse and rug production site.
“It’s a perfect retail setting for our business and this walk-on showroom, as I like to call it, really gives our customers the chance to experience what our products look like and feel like on the floor and let’s people compare different options,” Parker said as he strolled through the renovated boulevard storefront shortly after its opening in May. “We’re starting to get a lot of designers, builders, remodelers and homeowners coming to check us out.”
(READ MORE: Luxury vinyl production grows)
The new store opening comes less than a year after Jordan opened a Hixson location on Highway 153 last summer. It will not only expand the retail and drop-shipment capacity for Direct Flooring vinyl floors and carpets but also will allow Direct Flooring to make its own rugs in the back of the warehouse.
“We offer either special ordering if the customer sees something they like in our carpet racks, and we’ll be able to make some of our custom rugs,” Parker said.
The sewing and binding equipment allows the flooring company to repurpose unused rugs and yarns and make specialized rugs for consumers, he said.
The rug production carries on the tradition of Jordan Parker’s grandfather, Barney Sullivan, who produced rugs and carpets in Dalton, Georgia, and sold his wares at the former Factory Carpet House on Ringgold Road until the store closed in 2004.
Using what he learned in the business from his grandfather, Parker started his Direct Flooring business in 2004, selling and installing hardwood, vinyl and carpet floorings directly into new and renovated buildings for local contractors.
Parker began working in his grandfather’s store at age 10, earning a dollar an hour.
“Much more important than any earnings, was the teachings of my grandfather and how to run a successful store, focused on customer satisfaction,” Parker said.
To start his own business 20 years ago, Parker rented a small storage facility, borrowed a forklift “and I had my mother help me to cosign on a pickup truck,” Parker said.
True to the company’s “Direct Flooring” name, Parker sold his product from samples in his truck and installed hardwood and carpet flooring surfaces in both new and remodeled buildings in the region.
Even in the shadow of the Carpet Capital in Dalton and its abundance of flooring retailers, Parker has grown his business over time. In 2009, Parker opened part of a warehouse as a retail storefront on Rossville Boulevard.
(READ MORE: Happy Feet boosts vinyl flooring sales 43% during pandemic)
A year ago, Parker expanded his delivery service across the Southeast offering drop shipments of Direct Flooring products across the region and even into other parts of the country.
“Our name is spreading out over the Southeast,” Parker said.
Direct Flooring may eventually open stores in other cities, Parker said. But for now, he is focusing on his new store, “and so far we’ve had a lot of interest and great customer response,” Parker said.
Contact Dave Flessner at [email protected] or 423-757-6340.
