The history of J.H Freed & Sons began in San Diego in May of 1979. Since its inception, 37 years ago, it has been family owned and operated from the same location in Kearny Mesa! This distributor is an asset to the 1,200 plus retailers they service, but also to the Southern California Floor Covering Industry and the San Diego County Floor Covering Association as a whole.
Established by John and Josiane Freed, J.H. Freed & Sons started out as a 100% carpet distributor servicing local San Diego County flooring retailers only. Josiane handled all the customer service and Accounting responsibilities of the business. John and Josiane's two sons, Christophe and Philippe; worked for their parents since its start-up and respectively are currently President and Vice President of Operations. Chris' wife, Ada Freed, has been involved in the business for the past 30 years starting out first in customer service, eventually managing a territory as a sales representative and today overseeing the accounting, credit, & marketing functions.
Chris Freed has been involved in the flooring industry nearly all his life. At the age of 14, Chris started learning retail sales in his grandfathers' retail home furnishing stores located in Arizona & South Dakota - Freed's Fine Furnishings. He graduated with an Associate's Degree in Home Furnishings Merchandising
from Jefferson State Jr. College in Alabama before transferring to the University of San Diego to continue his business studies and learn Spanish while assisting his parents with the startup of their new distribution business. Philippe became involved full-time in the warehouse after he graduated from high school. The Freeds and their two sons all worked together as a team with the day-to-day operations, internally and externally, to become what would be San Diego's oldest, largest, locally family owned full-line floor covering distributor of its time.
 |
|  |
The Freeds: Philippe, Ada, and Chis
|
In 1989, the company decided to broaden their product lines and started distribution of resilient and hard surface products. In the mid-1990s, John Freed started tufting operations in Chatsworth, GA, making commercial carpet. John retired several years after, which is when Chris Freed became President of the company. Once Chris became President, he further diversified the company into more hard surfaces. He als
o expanded J.H. Freed & Sons distribution areas into all of southern California, southern Nevada and for northern California-distributing hardwood.
In 2012, J.H. Freed & Sons acquired Premier Flooring Solutions-a specialty Hardwood distributor including the rights to 3 national trademarked brands. J.H. Freed & Sons has always stayed up to date with the latest innovative trends in flooring, being the first distributor to introduce to the San Diego floor covering community products such as; mechanical locking laminate, loose lay sheet vinyl and LVT. Currently, they distribute carpet, Carpet Tiles, Cork flooring, Flexible Luxury Vinyl Plank & Tile, Rigid LVT (WPC), Loose Lay LVT, Laminate, Sheet Vinyl, and engineered wood flooring products throughout all of Southern California and Southern Nevada.
J.H Freed & Sons currently has nine outside sales representatives that service over 1200 retail flooring accounts. The major brands they distribute consist of: IVC, Milliken Carpets, Freedom Carpets, Fusion, Inhaus, Next Floor, Qu-Cork, Raskin Gorilla Floors, and Premier Hardwood (Nature's Beauty, FineLine & The Woodland Collection).
Since 1979, J. H. Freed & Sons has specialized in supporting flooring dealers with the best quality products, most responsive customer service support, and competitive prices. They have developed hundreds of long-term relationships with leading flooring dealers throughout California and Southern Nevada. J.H. Freed & Sons-Your Premier Flooring Solution, has been a continuous member of and has supported the San Diego Floor Covering Association for thirty-seven years and counting! Chris also has a reputation for giving back to the industry through his volunteer time locally with the SDCFCA as a 2-term Past President and nationally as Past President of the North American Association of Floor Covering Distributors. He believes in giving back to the industry that has supported his family all of these years.
|