91.1 F
San Fernando
Thursday, Mar 28, 2024

Footprints Floors to Enter the L.A. Market

A former Walmart de Mexico executive is bringing a new home flooring franchise to the San Fernando Valley.

Alfonso Ferreira, formerly the vice president of innovation and productivity at the retail giant’s south-of-the-border unit, is striking out on his own and opening a Footprints Floors operation in the East Valley. It will be the Denver-based franchise’s first presence in California, offering hardwood and tile floor, carpet, backsplash and laminate installation and restoration services to Glendale, Burbank, Pasadena, Santa Clarita and West Covina.“I always wanted to own a business and to start doing something by myself. So I started to look at franchise opportunities,” said Ferreira, who in 2018 moved to La Cañada-Flintridge for a consulting job with L.A. retailer Curacao.He said Footprints Floors had an attractive business model with low overhead, comprehensive support from the central corporation and a focus on customer service.

The franchise’s Chief Executive Bryan Park told the Business Journal that Footprints Floors operates differently than most traditional flooring companies, which typically invest tens of thousands of dollars a month into staffed showrooms, tons of inventory, forklifts and other equipment. Footprints Floors does away with all of that.“Vendors have warehouses and will drop ship to customers’ homes,” Park explained. The money saved goes towards marketing.

Footprints Floors’ role is to consult with customers, deliver estimates and coordinate with contractors who do the physical work on site. The corporate arm takes care of marketing and operates a telephone call center to deal with customers and schedule estimates for all of its franchisees.“We try to tee them up for success,” Park said.

Franchisees don’t even need a brick-and-mortar space – or employees, for that matter. Park said most operators work solo out of their homes.

“A huge advantage is that we’re nimble. There are not so many moving parts,” he said. “That translates well to adding new owners.”Another plus is that operators don’t need to put up a massive upfront investment – the franchise fee for a single territory is around $80,000 all told. Most recoup that investment fast.

“Most franchise owners are getting close to making six figures in (their first) year,” Park said.Ferreira went bigger than most and bought the rights to operate in four territories.

“I will cover 2.3 million people,” he said, adding he plans to expand to more ZIP Codes and hire a small sales and project management team once he establishes a firm presence in the L.A. market.

Ferreira returned to Denver this week for his final training session with the corporate arm. He earned his license to operate in California in November and is targeting a February launch.

Opportunity from crisisPark founded Footprints Floors in 2008, in the throes of the Great Recession.

The hardwood flooring company he worked for at the time was suffering existential financial woes and hadn’t paid its employees for several months. Then Park was notified he’d be laid off without receiving the backpay he was owed.

“We had a two-year-old, my wife was eight months pregnant, we had four dogs, an 800-square-foot house, $35,000 in credit card debt and I was unemployed in a recession,” he recalled.

Park took matters into his own hands, setting up Footprints Floors out of his garage while his wife built out a customer-facing website.

“We didn’t do a project for two full months. We had some tense moments. … By May or June of ‘09, I had enough business going that I could keep myself busy. I was doing floors full time, physically, and I had three or four other crews working simultaneously. We ran through that year and ended up doing $560,000.” Over the next few years, Park grew Footprints Floors into one of the largest flooring companies in Colorado and began franchising to local operators.In 2018, he decided to expand the company outside of his home state and hired consulting firm Raintree Franchise Development to promote the company and solicit franchise offers.Business has been booming ever since.“We just hit our 64th owner,” Park said. “We’re adding 20 new owners in the next two and a half months.”

Featured Articles

Related Articles