Jeff Hamar, president of Galleher, and Todd Hamar, Galleher's svp, have repurchased the Santa Fe Springs, Calif.-based flooring distributor from ITOCHU Corp. The two brothers originally sold the company to the Japanese trading company in 2007. In addition, Jeff Hamar, who retired in 2009 and returned to the company as a senior advisor this year, has returned to his role as president. Financial terms were not disclosed.

Jeff Hamar toldNFTthat ITOCHU Corp. was planning to exit the flooring distribution business. "For some internal reasons they made the decision to exit the floor covering business. They looked at a couple of scenarios, and decided to offer the company back to us in an extremely attractive way. The opportunity to own and manage an extremely well capitalized company as the recovery begins and growth returns was too good a deal to pass on."

He said repurchasing the company has provided "a clear path forward."

"We don't have the corporate bureaucracy of being part of a very large company," Hamar noted. "We are in an extremely strong financial position and really have the flexibility to offer the best service to our customers.”

Hamar said the company will put more of a focus on hardwood and specialty products. "Our plan is to add some products to build out our line, and really focus on wood, along with laminate, LVT and accessory products."

The company operates 11 warehouse facilities in California, Arizona and Nevada. For more information, visitwww.galleher.com.-Michael Chmielecki