Channel Home Centers (formerly known as Channel Lumber Company and often simply known as Channel) was a chain of
home-improvement center A home improvement center, home improvement store, or home center is a retail store that combines the functions of a hardware store with those of a lumber yard. Major North American home-improvement center chains include Home Depot, Lowe's, Menar ...
s that was based in
Whippany, New Jersey
Whippany is a Local government in New Jersey#Unincorporated communities, unincorporated community located within Hanover Township, New Jersey, Hanover Township in Morris County, New Jersey, Morris County, New Jersey, United States. Whippany's na ...
.
History
The chain of stores was founded in 1948 but could trace its history as far back as 1922 or 1908, when the original lumber company that preceded it was founded. At its peak Channel operated stores in nine states, and did business in the Philadelphia and New York metropolitan areas. In August 1994 Channel was bought by venture capital firm Eos Partners L.P. and merged with competitor
Rickel
Rickel (known as Rickel Brothers in its early years, Rickel Supermarts in the 1960s, and Rickel Home Centers in later years) was a chain of home-improvement centers based in northern New Jersey. The company’s first store opened in 1953 and for ...
, ceasing to exist.
A 1975 ''
New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' profile traced the company's origins to a lumber business started in Newark in 1922 by two Russian Jewish Americans, Abraham Levy and Morris Charin (1887–1963).("Channel Lumber Co., Belleville, lumber, $125,000; Morris Charin, Max Adelman, Abraham Levy, Newark.") A 1990 article in the same publication, and other company releases, however, have put the founding date at 1908. In any event, Louis L. Slater (1913–1987), son-in-law of Levy, opened the first retail outlet in
Newark, New Jersey
Newark ( , ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of New Jersey and the seat of Essex County and the second largest city within the New York metropolitan area.
Expansion
In 1963, it was reported that Channel Lumber had seven locations, all in New Jersey.("Morris Charin, founder and president of the Channel Lumber Company, which operates a chain of seven retail outlets in this state, died Thursday in Miami, Fla. He was 76 years old....:")
By late 1975, the chain had 24 locations, 22 of which were in New Jersey.
W. R. Grace and Company
W. R. Grace and Co. is an American chemical business based in Columbia, Maryland. It produces specialty chemicals and specialty materials in two divisions: Grace Catalysts Technologies, which makes catalysts and related products and technologies ...
purchased the company from the Slater family in 1977 for $19 million. By 1979, the company had expanded to over 70 locations, moving beyond New Jersey and Pennsylvania to enter New York, Connecticut, and Delaware in 1978, and Maryland and Massachusetts in 1979.
In 1986, Channel's executives bought the company through a
leveraged buyout
A leveraged buyout (LBO) is one company's acquisition of another company using a significant amount of borrowed money ( leverage) to meet the cost of acquisition. The assets of the company being acquired are often used as collateral for the loa ...
. The purchase included a total of 202 retail locations in 20 states, including home centers under W.R. Grace located in the southeast, among them "Handy City" and
Handy Dan Handy Dan Home Improvement was an American home improvement store based out of New Jersey. It went out of business in May, 198
Bernard Marcus was CEO of Handy Dan in 1978 when he was fired along with company vice president Arthur Blank amid a c ...
.
By 1990, the chain had grown to 89 Channel outlets in nine states, but in early 1991, the company filed for
Chapter 11
Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code (Title 11 of the United States Code) permits reorganization under the bankruptcy laws of the United States. Such reorganization, known as Chapter 11 bankruptcy, is available to every business, wheth ...
bankruptcy protection, and announced a plan to close 34 of 86 stores, mostly in the Baltimore-Washington and New England markets. It emerged from bankruptcy in March 1992.
In 1994, Channel and its competitor
Rickel
Rickel (known as Rickel Brothers in its early years, Rickel Supermarts in the 1960s, and Rickel Home Centers in later years) was a chain of home-improvement centers based in northern New Jersey. The company’s first store opened in 1953 and for ...
were bought by a venture capital firm, which merged the operations of the two chains under the Rickel name. At that point in time, it had 60 locations, and its 1993 sales topped $300 million. Nearly all the Channel stores were converted into
Rickel
Rickel (known as Rickel Brothers in its early years, Rickel Supermarts in the 1960s, and Rickel Home Centers in later years) was a chain of home-improvement centers based in northern New Jersey. The company’s first store opened in 1953 and for ...
locations, except for one location that was operated in proximity to a Rickel store.