ROLLING OUT THE RED (AND GREEN, BEIGE, BLUE, YELLOW…) CARPET

With second-generation leadership poised to take the helm, Carpet Specialists marks forty years in business.

Written by Bridget Williams / Photos by Tony Bailey

Family-owned businesses are among the most precious jewels in the United States' treasure chest, accounting for anywhere from fifty-seven to sixty-four percent of the country's annual GDP and providing jobs for sixty-three percent of the population. And, while not always as dramatic and fiery as the antics played out in HBO's Succession, generational change often signals the death knell for family-owned businesses, with only thirty percent successfully transitioning into a second generation, a figure that nearly halves by the time the third generation is of age to assume leadership.

Such a dilemma is not the case for Carpet Specialists, founded forty years ago this August and holding fast as Kentucky's top purveyor of luxury flooring for commercial and residential clients. As co-founder David Turner plans to semi-retire at the end of the year, his son Chad, whose apprenticeship included working every facet of the business, is poised to take the helm., supported by co-workers who are family and those whose tenure with the company is long enough that they are considered such.

Harry Lloyd and David Turner

Approaching entrepreneurship from different backgrounds allowed David Turner and Harry Lloyd to account for the business's pretty and practical aspects. David, who started in the flooring industry as a vinyl installer at the tender age of 15, met Harry while working at another flooring company. When asked where the idea to start the business came from, Harry puts it simply, "I like nice carpet. When I walk into a room or down the stairs, I want to like what I see and how it feels." The pair, who said they never had a cross word in all their years of working together, call their business partnership "a perfect storm."

Custom rug samples in the Carpet Specialists showroom.

Back in 1983, when the now-sprawling Lake Forest neighborhood was breaking ground, Kentucky didn't have any high-end options when it came to flooring. Harry points out that the flooring industry at that time had a pretty seedy reputation, the kind that got lumped into jokes about lawyers and used car salespeople. They got business the old-fashioned way: pounding the pavement and persistence, dropping by building sites repeatedly until they could get in front of the decision-makers. "Once we got them, we had a customer for life," said Harry, to which David quickly added that a box of his wife Terri's famous fudge didn't hurt. In fact, in their first year of business, Terri made 20 boxes to give to builders. This past year that number ballooned to 780. David's eyes sparkle at his wife's mention, "She gave me the freedom to do what I love, and I couldn't have been successful without her," he said.

For many years, David and Terri thoughtfully tended to the landscaping at the front of the Carpet Specialists showroom in the Eastpoint Business Park. Today that same energy has gone into their vintage-inspired Southern-style home in Pewee Valley, not far from where David grew up, and which serves as a showcase not only for Carpet Specialists' customized flooring (encompassing hardwood planks up to 15 inches wide and stained to match existing colors, and designer carpets with bespoke patterns or colors, including rugs with no seam up to 20 ft wide) but also the adept skills of their installers and David's mastery of carpentry.

The Turner’s drew inspiration for their newly built home from Southern-style estates at the turn of the 20th century.

David Turner is particularly fond of the pattern of the wool carpet runner on the stairs to the second floor.

Knowing and understanding their product is only part of Carpet Specialists' secret sauce. "It's always important to tell the truth and be a good person," said David, who took great care in introducing me to nearly every member of their team in both the showroom and the warehouse, making it abundantly clear that the company's philosophy is to view success as a sum of all their parts. The two-plus decade tenure of employees, including John Faulkner, Greg Turner, Denise Duncan, and Sally Hudgens, is evidence that the definition of family business goes beyond DNA.

The most challenging years in the company's history, the historic economic downturn in 2008-2009, also opened the door to an unprecedented opportunity with a household name in high-end flooring: Stark, who selected Carpet Specialists as one of ten flooring stores in the United States to serve as a showroom for the entirety of their extensive product line. David said that making it through that period, which involved making tough decisions and cuts, reassured them that they could make it through anything.

After persevering through trying times and rapidly expanding the commercial side of the business to include clients such as the Omni Hotel, the Henry Clay, the Muhammad Ali Center, and more recently, Number 15 and the Haymarket, the next generation of the family has entered the fray. David's son Chad is President, and nephew Adam Hughes is CFO. Adam, who left behind a fast-tracked career at PriceWaterhouseCoopers in search of a better family-work balance, said he was always intrigued by the idea of working at a small business. He remarked that the team "is always inspiring and pulls the best out of me."

Chad Turner and Adam Hughes

Chad, who'd found success in golf sales post-college and hadn't really considered joining the family business, changed his mind after his father suggested his sales acumen could be a boon for the company. Harry mentored Chad soon before his retirement a decade ago.

As any parent can likely relate, the father-son working relationship is not without its challenges. Still, David can barely contain his pride when speaking of Chad's leadership capabilities. "Our staff would walk through fire for him," he said. And, in those tenser moments, David said that he's reminded of words of wisdom shared with him by his own father, "when you believe in something, you fight like hell for it."

In contrast to 2008, the pandemic provided an unprecedented boost in business, an experience the team likened to trying to take a drink from a firehose at full pressure. Finally returning to a "new normal," Chad said he's excited about the potential for continued growth. "It's all about getting the kind of new business you enjoy," he explained. He added that the positive changes he implemented in their operations mean that client relationships are more than transactional. Harry summed it up best by saying that over forty years, "The process and commitment to finding 'win-win' solutions has made friends out of many clients."