Steve Willmon

Unlike luckier scions of business, Steve Willmon took charge in 1998 of a business model that was rapidly becoming obsolete.

For almost a century, Brandon Co. had been wholesaling floor coverings to retailers in one territory from a single location. That location had changed — from downtown Little Rock to downtown North Little Rock — but the business plan had not.

Willmon started working in his father’s warehouse as a teenager and came back to stay after earning a business degree from the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville. He could see the handwriting on the floor.

“We saw consolidation in the industry everywhere we looked. We knew one of two things would happen: We’d either get bigger or we’d get bought out by someone who was bigger,” he said. “And we didn’t want to sell out.”

New territories were hard to come by. Finally, a vendor told Willmon that Montgomery & Co., which operated similar wholesale warehouses in Memphis and Nashville, Tenn., was for sale.

Willmon was a motivated buyer.

“Fear is a great motivator,” he said. “It’s the best motivator I know.”

The purchase of the Tennessee operations was followed by the opening of new warehouses in Baton Rouge, La., and Jackson, Miss. Willmon’s do-or-die decision to expand has pumped revenue from less than $10 million in 1994 to more than $50 million last year. Employment has grown from 30 to 88.

Hurricane Katrina didn’t shut down the Baton Rouge warehouse, but it brought sales to a near halt for several weeks. Willmon sent his idle sales reps to help their retailer clients sweep out their stores and get ready for the inevitable sales boom that would follow.

“For the next four or five years, it’s going to be nice. But after that, everyone’s going to have a new floor, so we have to be prepared for that, too,” Willmon said. “I tell our salesmen that a downturn in business shouldn’t affect you unless you have all the business. I’ll go get someone else’s business.”

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