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FOCUS ON FAMILY-OWNED BUSINESSESTuesday, March 3, 2015 journalrecord.com Vol. 120, No. 43 • Two Sections

BY DAVID PAGETHE JOURNAL RECORD

OKLAHOMA CITY – The future ofBentley Flooring was in question afterthird-generation owner Steven BentleySr. died suddenly in November 2011.

“We did not have a succession plan,”said Steven Bentley Jr., who is nowpresident of the family business.

Today Steven and his brother, NickBent ley, chief operations officer, are thefourth generation to operate BentleyFlooring, 3844 NW Eighth St. in Okla -homa City.

“After our dad died we went througha process with our mother to decide ifwe wanted to continue with the busi-ness,” Steven Bentley said. “We decidedwe did want to continue.”

Without a succession plan, it tookabout a year to work out the details.

“We talked with the banks and thebonding companies,” Steven Bentleysaid. “We talked with the employees.”

Their mother, Sally Bentley, becamechairman of the board with Steven aspresident and Nick as chief operationsofficer. A fourth family member,Barbara B. Philbin, Steven and Nick’saunt, works in job profitability and salessupport.

“In hindsight, we highly recommenda succession plan,” Nick Bentley said.

It all started in 1946. After returningfrom duty in World War II, Earl W.Bentley, Steven and Nick’s grandfather,joined with his father, Bill Bentley, at atire store.

“A customer needed some carpet,”Steven Bentley said. “He (Earl Bentley)found some and that was the beginningof Bentley Flooring.”

From that start, Bentley Flooring hasgrown to a commercial flooring compa-ny with 40 employees.

“Going into 2013 Mom brought in athird-party consulting firm to get anoutside point of view,” Steven Bentleysaid. “That gave us the ability to take anunbiased view of what was going on. Wewere able to rearrange some things andthat helped us out.”

Bentley Flooring works with con-tractors, architects and designers toinstall flooring including carpet,linoleum, laminate, wood floors,ceramic, porcelain, natural stone, gran-ite and glass tile on floors, walls andcountertops.

Employees include 20 installers.Much of Bentley Flooring’s recent

work has been in the medical facilities.“We did all four St. Anthony

Healthplexes,” Steven Bentley said.Other medical flooring projects

included Integris Health Edmond Hos -pital, Oklahoma Medical ResearchFoundation, and the Charles and PeggyStephenson Cancer Center.

Education flooring projects in cludeFrontier Elementary School in Ed mond,Hennessey High School, Mus tang HighSchool, Prairie View Elementary School

in Mustang and the University ofCentral Oklahoma Forensic SciencesInstitute.

Other projects include the DevonBoathouse, the AAA Call Center, BobMoore Cadillac, The Grand CasinoHotel Resort, the Mitch Park YMCA inEdmond and Chesapeake Energy.

“We installed about 100,000 yardsof carpet for Chesapeake,” StevenBentley said.

Bentley Flooring was awarded two2014 Build Oklahoma Awards in theSpecialty Contractors category from the

Associated General Contractors ofOklahoma for the Mitch Park YMCAand Prairie View Elementary School.

The Edmond Recreation and Aqua -tic Center at the Mitch Park YMCA wasan extremely complex project, StevenBentley said. The project in cludes41,000 square feet of porcelain andceramic tile.

“Besides flooring, the porcelainand ceramic tile was installed onwalls, pool decks, desks, a grand stair-case and the elevator shaft,” he said.“Each piece of porcelain and tile onthe elevator shaft had to be custom cuton-site in order for the pattern towork as drawn.”

Bentley Flooring’s part of the projectrequired about 6,000 labor hours.

“Most people just see the pretty endresult and don’t realize the complexi-ties involved in installation, such as the12-by-24 porcelain on the locker roomwalls,” Steven Bentley said. “Thisheavy material had to be properly inte-grated with the mosaic tile floors toallow proper weight transition.”

Steven Bentley started working inthe family business as an installer whenhe was a teenager.

“I started when I was about 15,” hesaid. “I worked three summers withinstallation.”

He continued to work summersafter he started college at the Uni -versity of Oklahoma.

“I continued to work summersthrough college until I had my first yearof sales,” he said. “I realized I couldmake more money and I left OU andstarted working full time.”

He left the family business, butreturned to it.

“I did some other jobs from 1997 to2007 but came back,” Steven Bentleysaid.

Nick Bentley joined the family busi-ness in 2009.

“I graduated from OU in 1999 andmoved to Nashville (Tennessee),” NickBentley said. “It just seemed like a funplace to be.”

He worked in sales for a technologycompany as a manufacturing represen-tative in the flooring industry.

“After Dad passed away we decidedthe best use for me was in operations –accounting and the back office,” NickBentley said. “Steven does the sales andI am in back-of-the-office help.”

Brothers Nick Bentley, left, chief operations officer of Bentley Flooring in Oklahoma City,and Steven Bentley Jr., president. PHOTO BY BRENT FUCHS

Rough ground coveredFlooring business family learns value of succession planning the hard way

Among Bentley Flooring’s education projects is Frontier Elementary School inEdmond. COURTESY PHOTOS

FAMILY BUSINESSES

One of Bentley Flooring’s other projects is the Mitch Park YMCA Aquatic Center inEdmond.

One of Bentley Flooring’s medical projects is Integris Health Edmond Hospital.

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