Masterpiece Lighting & Home has a long history of serving the Atlanta market as a specialty retailer of lighting, fans, appliances and decorative hardware to consumers, builders and designers. 

Under the name Masterpiece Lighting, the retailer had been a member of the CCA Lighting One cooperative since 2005. The Lighting One cooperative includes more than 300 locally owned lighting showrooms in the United States and Canada, offering exclusive products that consumers can’t find at big box stores or home centers, as well as personalized service from trained experts.

A sizable portion of one floor in the multi-story flagship is devoted to high-end and custom hardware. Additional categories include plumbing fittings, decorative hardware, luxury kitchen and bath products and high-end grills. In addition to the flagship location in Atlanta’s design district, the company owns a distribution center and of approximately 30,000 square feet nearby, plus another showroom location in the bustling Atlanta suburb of Roswell.

Phil Sherer, VP of sales for Masterpiece Lighting, said he knew the business model could  work to expand  into different product categories,  but  flooring  seemed like an insurmountable challenge—until CCA Global approached them with the Retail 2.0 flooring showroom concept.  

The Retail 2.0 merchandising and digital marketing strategy, which rolled out starting in April 2023, includes more than eight million product SKUs and a completely integrated digital platform.

“We’re rookies when it comes to selling flooring,” said Phil Sherer, vice president of sales for Masterpiece Home. “It was going to be really challenging with displays and getting all the vendors set up, so when they came with this Flooring America Retail 2.0 system—with a complete package of hardwood, waterproof flooring and carpet—I thought, okay, we can do this.”

This year, Masterpiece decided to capture new consumer segments by adding two new showrooms within their Midtown Atlanta location. They expanded into flooring with Flooring America’s Retail 2.0 selling system, branded Room to Explore, and incorporated a name change to Masterpiece Lighting & Home. The retailer also expanded into kitchen and bath through CCA Global’s Kiba division. To complete the loop, the company is using CCA Global’s National Installation Solutions (NISI) division to fulfill its installations, bringing four divisions of CCA together under one roof.

“Our newest Atlanta location is a great story,” said Keith Spano, president of Flooring America, Flooring Canada, The Floor Trader, International Design Guild and National Installation Solutions (NISI). “Masterpiece Lighting is a beautiful, state-of-the-art showroom.” 

CCA was founded almost 40 years ago to help independent retailers in every facet of the business from marketing, merchandising, training, real estate, succession planning and operations. However, CCA never had a program to help its members with one of the most challenging issues facing the flooring industry: installation.

In response, the cooperative created NISI four years ago, running pilots in multiple states up and down the east coast with varying degrees of success; continually modifying the program until the group found the formula that provided members with the best quality and accountability while mitigating the headaches of managing installation labor. NISI is currently operating in New England and the southeast with plans to expand nationwide, Spano said.

NISI is hiring installation companies that understand the needs of retailers and retail customers—those that understand our installation quality and professionalism expectations and know CCA retailers won’t settle for what may pass at a local competitor or big box store.

 “NISI is hiring installation companies that understand the needs of retailers and retail customers—those that understand installation quality and professionalism expectations and know CCA retailers won’t settle for what may pass at a local competitor or big box store," Spano said.

The NISI division not only provides installation and estimating services for CCA members, but also works in conjunction with CCA University to recruit, validate competency and ultimately hire installers. 

“NISI provides a tremendous advantage for CCA members that no other group can offer," Spano added. "Our members can focus on expansion into new markets when they don’t have to worry about labor.”

That’s exactly what Sherer said he was hoping for when he signed on to expand the Masterpiece Lighting & Home business, which currently does about 60% of is sales to the trade and 40% to consumers. 

His team converted part of Masterpiece Midtown building’s warehouse space into a bright, clean showroom complete with the Retail 2.0 merchandising fixtures and a table for client consultations. Sherer said CCA Global's merchandising team from Flooring America came in to set up the showroom in two days, and the team is helping Masterpiece announce the grand opening to the local market. 

While the success of the Retail 2.0 merchandising concept is built upon clean displays that are not branded by manufacturer, Sherer said he was compelled to bring in two additional displays from flooring manufacturer Cali to satisfy local builder demand. 

“A good builder customer of ours said Cali is the flooring brand they like,” Sherer said. “CCA Global said they were a great company and they support them even though they are not part of our Retail 2.0 because they didn't get in on time—but they said moving forward, it work themselves in.”