Orlando, Fla.—R&J Flooring Supply followed up on its strong NWFA 2025 debut in Charlotte last year with an equally impressive showing at the 2026 expo here earlier this year.
“It was really a great show for us,” said Bill Schollmeyer, vice president of sales. “We had a lot of dealers—not just contractors—stop by the booth. There were a lot of meaningful conversations.”
Despite a relatively short time operating in the U.S. market (but more than eight years globally), R&J Flooring Supply has built brand awareness while establishing itself as a reliable source of imported hardwood flooring.
“We’ve really grown as a company,” Schollmeyer told FCNews. “We’re committed to strictly selling hardwood floors—which is a nice lane to be in. More importantly, we have the full support from the family-owned mill overseas.”
That makes a world of difference when you’re a company like R&J Flooring Supply, which is structured to service dealers on a direct basis.
“I come from a distribution background, so I respect distributors and what they do,” Schollmeyer said. “But we entered the market at a time when there’s not really a lot of room in a crowded distributor space for a company like ourselves. So we decided to go direct to the dealer. We’re offering very reasonable prices on great products, but we’re also offering service and inventory and molding and samples and operational support.”
“Again, no disrespect to distributors, but they’ve got a lot of lines to deal with. Coming in at this point in the game it’s hard to carve out your own space. We’re able to offer all those things that sometimes can get lost with a big distributor.”
For example, R&J Flooring Supply is able to leverage its sprawling warehousing capabilities to service its customers. The company currently stocks more than $10 million worth of inventory via two company-owned and staffed warehouses in Sutton, Mass., and Franklin, N.J.
“Between both of them, we ship pretty much all up and down the East Coast through the Midwest,” Schollmeyer said. “They’re staffed by our people to ensure customers get really good service. We also offer flexibility when customers need to make pick-ups. Having our own people in the warehouse makes a huge difference.”
Embracing technology
Beyond providing the core requirements of a “defacto-distributor,” R&J Flooring Supply is also leveraging technology to its advantage.
For instance, the company is in the process of onboarding Lightbeans—a digital sampling program—to assist customers and potential buyers in selecting products and materials. According to Schollmeyer, the program should be up and running within 60 days.
“It’s a high-tech program that’s expensive to get into, but it’s worth the investment,” he said. “It’s really geared more toward the commercial community.”
Over the past year R&J Flooring Supply has also enhanced its website to feature a room visualizer powered by Roomvo.
But it doesn’t end there.
“We’ve really stepped it up in terms of our social media presence,” Schollmeyer said.
R&J Flooring is also expanding its brand and presence across traditional channels. Earlier this year the company signed on to become a core supplier to Alliance Flooring, making its first appearance at the group’s recent convention in San Antonio.
“That marks our first entry into a buying group, and it’s been really favorable,” Schollmeyer said. “It helps build our presence, and it gives them a good value line from a supplier that’s easy to do business with.”
Of course, it can only help retailer partners when you offer an expansive yet relevant assortment of products.
Standouts include the company’s signature Denali line of premium engineered hardwood, named after the Denali Mountains in Alaska and the preserve that bears its name. Planks in the Denali line feature widths up to 9.5 inches and thicknesses up to ¾ inch with a wear layer up to 6mm.
Another product highlight is the Eterna collection, which features clean grades in soft, warm hues. The line covers today’s popular hardwood trends, including an ebony-toned product called Epoch, which features a custom cerused treatment.
“Our breadth of products is pretty broad,” Schollmeyer said. “It goes from a half-inch thick, white oak floor with a 2mm wear layer at the entry level, all the way up to a ¾-inch-thick line with a 6mm wear layer. We also launched a completely unfinished engineered line—there aren’t many mills supplying that. And we’re pretty close to launching a rift-sawn line that’ll be out in a few months. So a lot of great products coming out that are different than just your basic hardwood flooring products.”
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