In December, after closing its 38 bricks-and-mortar stores, iFloor filed for bankruptcy. The unnamed venture capital firm that owned most of the retailer withdrew its funding commitments, citing the negative outlook for the housing market and the sour economy overall. In its Chapter 11 filing with The U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Western District of Washington, the company listed assets ranging from $1 million to $10 million and liabilities of $10 million to $50 million.
The retailer has now announced that the Anhui Longhua Group, a Chinese-owned global collection of companies, has purchased for an undisclosed sum all brands, intellectual property, systems, technology and the majority of inventory of iFloor. Anhui Longhua will operate the new, web-only company in the United States as Longhua USA Inc. DBA/iFloor.com.
“The new iFloor is committed to taking care of customers by having a dedicated direct sales staff working in our contact center and distribution center,” a company spokesperson says. “The stores were all closed before the new company had the chance to buy them, so for the time being iFloor will operate in the ultra-low-overhead e-commerce world to save customers money.”
iFloor was incorporated in 1999. In each of the last three years it has reaped annual web sales of around $60 million, Internet Retailer estimates. Before bankruptcy, the company’s Internet arm, iFloor.com, was No. 178 in the Internet Retailer Top 500 Guide.
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