Engineered Floors, the Dalton, Georgia-based floorcovering company started in 2009 by industry titan Bob Shaw, reached an agreement to buy Beaulieu Group, a one-time competitor.
According to Floor Focus magazine, Beaulieu’s 2016 sales had ranked eighth in the industry in 2016, but the Dalton-based company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in mid-2017. As Engineered Floors’ 2016 sales were ranked sixth, per the magazine, the two companies’ combined sales would vault it to No. 3, behind Mohawk Industries and Shaw Industries — the company launched by Bob Shaw decades earlier and sold to Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway in 2001.
Ken Ryan, senior editor of Floorcovering News, called Shaw “one of a kind” who “continued to amaze even in his retirement years,” noting that the carpet executive was in his mid-80s at the time.
Beaulieu, also based in Dalton, said in a statement that officials believed the opportunity provided “the best course for the company and its employees, customers and vendors.”