Lumber Liquidators, which started in Massachusetts in 1994, employs roughly 1,000 people in about 200 stores in 46 states. It is the largest specialty retailer of hardwood flooring in the country.

Company founder Tom Sullivan, then a building contractor and now chairman of the board, started by buying excess wood and reselling it. He found a niche in selling discounted flooring and opened the first store in 1996. Hardwood floors were catching on but were mostly sold by scattered mom-and-pop retailers that specialized in carpeting, Griffiths said.

The company expanded during the robust housing market years and moved into the former John Deere site at the Stonehouse Commerce Park in 2004.

In 2007, Lumber Liquidators went public, just before the housing market soured and the recession settled in. At the time, the company focus was shifting to providing consistency in merchandise and pricing structure, formalizing relationships with suppliers, boosting training and improving planning, distribution and the website, Griffiths said. The company also changed its message from promoting its brand to marketing its low prices.

About 90 percent of the company's customer base consists of homeowners who want to remodel, so the residential construction standstill didn't affect the business.

But the recession did. Starting in the fourth quarter of 2008, year-over-year comparable store net sales decreased for three quarters in a row.

Consumers had the mindset that their house was an investment that would always rise in value and was worth investing in. That was shattered when homes nationwide started losing value, Griffiths said.

By the middle of last year, people who hadn't lost jobs began to feel a little more secure. Retirement portfolios began to rebound. Homeowners reconciled to the fact that their homes weren't worth what they were at the height of the boom and started thinking about renovating, Griffiths said.

This year, the company announced a nearly 37 percent first-quarter profit.