For Brian Elias of 1-800-Hansons, ooring venture is family a air

BY JAY DAVIS

Brian Elias found great success with his 1-800-Hansons home improvement company, and he believes he can do it again with his latest venture.

Elias and his 25-year-old son Daniel are the founders and owners of Troy-based Re oor, which o ers shop-at-home ooring services.

Brian Elias, 57, CEO and Re oor’s chief imagination o cer, believes he can lean on his experience and achievements with 1-800-Hansons to push Re oor to the top of the U.S. ooring market. e father-and-son duo believe their customer-friendly business model — which includes next-day installation of vinyl, hardwood and laminate ooring — lends itself to growth.

“If you go to (a big box store), you see aisles and aisles of oor,” Brian Elias said. “ ey could build the best oor, but they’re choosing not to put the best product out on the oor. If you sell one person ve oors in their lifetime as opposed to one, you make more money. It’s that simple.

“We wanted to change that experi- ence. So many people walk in (to a store) looking at oors and walk out with nothing. ey want to know what things look like in their own house. We’re o ering a totally di erent buying experience. e consumer is able to make a decision quickly. We make it easy.” e company was established in 2020, but delayed branding and marketing until 2022 because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Re oor has seven locations in the Midwest — 5,000- to 6,000-square-foot warehouses in Detroit, Toledo, Grand Rapids, Indianapolis, Cleveland, Cincinnati and St. Louis, Mo. Each warehouse has 32 colors of ooring for customers to choose from. e company expects to grow its workforce from close to 200 sta ers to 300, Elias said.

Re oor completed more than 4,000 jobs in 2022, according to Director of Operations Daniel Elias — 30 percent more than projected. He estimates Re oor will complete about 7,000 jobs this year, a projection bolstered by plans to open four more locations by the end of the year.

“We really are trying to build the largest ooring company in America,” said Brian Elias, a 1999 Crain’s 40 Under 40 honoree. “We’re looking to be everywhere. We want to be a national brand. We want to be the most trusted brand. I think what we’ve done so far is good, but every week we have meetings to gure out what we can do better.”

Elias looks to have made a savvy move.

The U.S. flooring market was a $20 billion industry in 2021, ac- cording to the most recent data from market research firm Grand View Research. The market is expected to grow annually by 5.6 percent through 2030.

Re oor amassed about $32 million in sales in 2022, according to Daniel Elias. He estimates it will bring in between $50 million and $60 million in sales this year.

“We’ve seen some great growth across the board,” he said. “We’ve been able to open up a lot of new stores. It’s been an awesome experience. We’d like to start opening a new location every 90 days for the next two years.”

Experience is key

Brian Elias is leaning on his years of experience as an entrepreneur and in home improvement to help grow Re oor.

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