Accent Flooring moves to Willard, opens Ozark location

Seeking to capitalize on increased traffic flow and heightened visibility along Highway 160, Accent Flooring moved Sept. 1 from 502 W. Boone in Ash Grove to a 1,500-square-foot showroom at 506 E. Jackson in Willard, said owner David Ellingson.

The site in the Prairie View Shopping Center is leased from Webster Partners.

Ellingson, and his wife, Rheanna, bought the 16-year-old American Carpet and Vinyl business in August 2002 and changed the name in September of this year. Accent Flooring's parent company is American Carpet and Flooring LLC.

The Ellingsons also have a second, larger Accent Flooring location at 1449 Skyline in Ozark. Opened in April 2003, the site includes 11,000 square feet of warehouse and 2,000 square feet of office and showroom space. Nine full-time employees staff the two locations.

"We signed a three-year lease with the potential for two additional years, and we're just uncertain here," Ellingson said, adding that he's considering a stand-alone site near Ozark's new Wal-Mart. Accent Flooring's Ozark space is leased from Wayne Scheer.

Willard move

Moving the business to Willard has significantly increased its exposure, Ellingson said. "Traffic just wasn't what it needed to be, and we were dealing with the logistics of trying to handle both locations (Ash Grove and Willard market areas) from the Ash Grove location," he added.

Jody Fleischman, salesperson at the Willard store, said Ellingson is wanting to expand his general contractor business, as he has done at the Ozark store.

Ellingson said revenues are increasing compared to what the Ash Grove store was doing originally.

"When I took that store over out there, it was doing, maybe, $350,000 a year in total sales," he said.

"This year we'll probably do right around $1 million."

Before they got into the flooring business, the Ellingsons owned Absolutely Clean, a local, home-based cleaning service, for two years, handling such commercial accounts as 3-M, Grizzly Industrial and Lambert's Caf, Rheanna Ellingson said.

The couple sold that business to the Bixler Corporation in July 2002.