The Tile Shop opened three new stores last month, including one in the Toledo area. The other locations are in Bloomfield Hills, Mich., and Edison, N.J.

The specialty retailer of manufactured and natural stone tiles, tools and accessories opened its first store in the Toledo market three weeks ago at 1244 Corporate Drive in Holland. The shop is located near the intersection of Airport Highway and Holland-Sylvania Road.

“It’s the biggest tile store anyone has seen in Toledo,” said Mike Dahlhofer, manager of the store in Holland. “We opened just in time for the holidays and saw a lot of traffic before Christmas.”

The Tile Shop features a 22,000 square-foot showroom complete with 42 bathroom and kitchen displays to show its large selection of floor and wall tiles in ceramic, glass, porcelain, faux wood and natural stone. It also includes about 10,000 square feet of warehouse space to stock all of the tile products and accessories, according to Dahlhofer.

Mike Dahlhofer, manager of The Tile Shop in Holland, and his staff, from left, Ashley Graves, Steve Rudolph, Maren Tregillis and Bill Vaneck. Toledo Free Press Photo by Joseph Herr.

“We cater to the do-it-yourselfers and carry all the tools and accessories needed to install and maintain the tile,” Dahlhofer said.

He said a large portion of The Tile Shop’s business involves working with local contractors who purchase the products for residential projects. He estimated that their business is about 60 percent to contractors and 40 percent directly to consumers.

The Tile Shop also offers a free class every Saturday at 9 a.m. to teach do-it-yourselfers how to install and maintain tile. Dahlhofer said that attendees learn the basics about the materials and tools and actually get to set some tiles to see how easy they can be to install.

Dahlhofer said he has a staff of six employees at the Toledo store, including Ashley Graves, Erica Krischbaum, Steve Rudolph, Maren Tregillis, Bill VanEck and himself.

Builders, contractors and installers, who have come from as far away as Archbold and Napoleon, have been impressed with the large selection of tile products they carry, according to the staff.

The store is open Monday through Friday from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m., Saturday from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. The sign for The Tile Shop can be seen from I-475 just north of the Airport Highway exit.

Dahlhofer has worked for The Tile Shop organization for 10 years, recently serving in Ann Arbor and then managing his first store in New Jersey. Originally from the Detroit area, he wanted to be closer to home so he accepted the job to manage the new location in the Toledo area.

The Tile Shop also announced Jan. 2 that it had completed the purchase of a new 150,000-square-foot distribution facility located on 15 acres in Durant, Okla. The company already operates a distribution center just north of Toledo in Ottawa Lake, Mich.

Dahlhofer said it will be convenient having the distribution center located so close to the Toledo-area store.

Tile Shop Holdings is the parent company of The Tile Shop. It opened 15 new stores in 2012, bringing its total to 68 stores in 21 states. It now has seven stores in Ohio, six in Michigan and four in New Jersey.

“We are extremely pleased that we have successfully demonstrated our ability to significantly grow our store count through the opening of 15 new stores in 2012. This is a great way to end the year and it positions us well for continued growth in 2013,” said Robert Rucker, CEO of Tile Shop Holdings, in a news release announcing the openings.

“We are excited about the acquisition of the distribution facility in Oklahoma as it will enable us to accelerate our national expansion plans,” Rucker said.

The company expects to begin operations at the new distribution center by the end of the second quarter of 2013. It will utilize that facility to distribute products to its eight stores located in Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska and Missouri.

For more information, visit www.tileshop.com.

Tags: The Tile Shop

This entry was posted on Sunday, January 13th, 2013 at 12:00 pm and is filed under Community, Development.
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