Business description of Floor--Decor-Holdings-Inc from last 10-k form

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an overall decline in the health of the economy, the hard surface flooring industry, consumer spending and the housing market;

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any disruption in our distribution capabilities resulting from our inability to operate our distribution centers going forward;

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competition from other stores and internet-based competition;

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our failure to execute our business strategy effectively and deliver value to our customers;

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our inability to manage our growth;

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our inability to manage costs and risks relating to new store openings;

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our dependence on foreign imports for the products we sell;

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our inability to find, train and retain key personnel;

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violations of laws and regulations applicable to us or our suppliers;

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our failure to adequately protect against security breaches involving our information technology systems and customer information;

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our failure to successfully anticipate consumer preferences and demand;

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our inability to find available locations for our stores or our store support center on terms acceptable to us;

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our inability to obtain merchandise on a timely basis at prices acceptable to us;

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suppliers may sell similar or identical products to our competitors;

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our inability to maintain sufficient levels of cash flow to meet growth expectations;

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our inability to manage our inventory obsolescence, shrinkage and damage;

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fluctuations in material and energy costs;

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our vulnerability to natural disasters and other unexpected events;

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an overall decline in the health of the economy, the hard surface flooring industry, consumer spending, and the housing market; and

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restrictions imposed by our indebtedness on our current and future operations.

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ITEM 1.              BUSINESS.

Except where the context suggests otherwise, the terms “Floor & Decor Holdings, Inc.,” “Floor & Decor,” the “Company,” “we,” “us,” and “our” refer to Floor & Decor Holdings, Inc., a Delaware corporation, together with its consolidated subsidiaries.

Our fiscal year is the 52 or 53 week period ending on the Thursday preceding December 31. The following discussion contains references to fiscal 2013, fiscal 2014, fiscal 2015, fiscal 2016, fiscal 2017 and fiscal 2018, which represent our fiscal years ended December 26, 2013, December 25, 2014, December 29, 2016, December 28, 2017 and December 27, 2018, all of which are 52 week periods, and our fiscal year ended December 31, 2015, which was a 53 week period.

Our Company

Founded in 2000, Floor & Decor is a high‑growth, differentiated, multi‑channel specialty retailer of hard surface flooring and related accessories with 83 warehouse‑format stores across 21 states. We believe that we offer the industry’s broadest in‑stock assortment of tile, wood, laminate and natural stone flooring along with decorative and installation accessories at everyday low prices positioning us as the one‑stop destination for our customers’ entire hard surface flooring needs. We appeal to a variety of customers, including professional installers and commercial businesses (“Pro”), Do It Yourself customers (“DIY”) and customers who buy the products for professional installation (“Buy it Yourself” or “BIY”). Our Pro customers are loyal, shop often and help promote our brand. The combination of our category and product breadth, low prices, in‑stock inventory in project‑ready quantities, proprietary credit offerings, free storage options and dedicated customer service positions us to gain share in the attractive Pro customer segment. We believe our DIY customers spend significant time planning their projects while conducting extensive research in advance. We provide our customers with the education and inspiration they need before making a purchase through our differentiated online and in‑store experience.

Our warehouse‑format stores, which average approximately 73,000 square feet, are typically larger than any of our specialty retail flooring competitors’ stores. Other large format home improvement retailers only allocate a small percentage of their floor space to hard surface flooring and accessories. When our customers walk into a Floor & Decor store for the first time, we believe they are amazed by our visual presentation, our store size, our everyday low prices and the breadth and depth of our merchandise. We believe that our inspiring design centers, creative and informative visual merchandising, and accessible price points greatly enhance our customers’ experience. Our stores are easy to navigate and designed to interactively showcase the wide array of designs and product styles a customer can create with our flooring and decorative accessories. We engage our customers both through our trained store associates and designers who can assist in narrowing choices and making the process of home renovation easier, as well as our staff dedicated to serving Pro customers. By carrying a deep level of hard surface flooring inventory and wide range of tools and accessories, we seek to offer our customers immediate availability on everything they need to complete their entire flooring or remodeling project. In addition to our stores, our website FloorandDecor.com showcases our products, offers informational training and design ideas and has our products available for sale, which a customer can pick up in‑store or have delivered. Our ability to purchase directly from manufacturers through our direct sourcing model enables us to be fast to market with a balanced assortment of bestseller and unique, hard to find items that are the latest trend‑right products. We believe these factors create a differentiated value proposition for Floor & Decor and drive customer loyalty with our Pro, DIY and BIY hard surface flooring customers in our markets, as evidenced by our track record of consistent double digit comparable store sales growth, which has averaged 17.5% over the last five years. Based on these characteristics, we believe Floor & Decor is redefining and expanding the addressable market size of the hard surface flooring category and that we have an opportunity to significantly expand our store base to approximately 400 stores nationwide within the next 15 years, as described in more detail below.

Our Company was founded in 2000 by our Vice Chairman Vincent West, who opened the first Floor & Decor store in Atlanta, Georgia, with the vision of being the low‑price leader for hard surface flooring. As we have grown, we have implemented a customer‑focused and decentralized approach to managing our business. We provide our store leadership and regional operating teams with regular training and sophisticated information technology systems. We also train and incentivize our store associates to deliver a superior experience to our customers. Taken together, these elements create a customer‑centric culture that helps us achieve our operational and financial goals.

Over the last several years, we have invested significant resources across our business and infrastructure to support innovation and growth. We believe that these investments will continue to strengthen our customer value proposition and further differentiate Floor & Decor from our competition, positioning us for continued market share gains. We have made significant investments in product innovation across all categories, improving our assortment and seeking to provide more value to our Pro, DIY