Channel Home Centers
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Home improvement
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| Industry | Retail, Home improvement |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1948 (first retail location) |
| Defunct | 1994 |
| Fate | Merged with Rickel |
| Headquarters | Whippany, New Jersey |
Key people | Louis L. Slater (Chain founder) Morris Charin (Levy's partner) Abraham Levy (Founder of preceding lumber company) |
| Parent | Family owned through 1977; W. R. Grace and Company (1977-86) |
Channel Home Centers (formerly known as Channel Lumber Company and often simply known as Channel) was a chain of home-improvement centers that was based in Whippany, New Jersey.
A 1975 New York Times 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).[1][2] A 1990 article in the same publication, and other company releases, however, have put the founding date at 1908.[3] Louis L. Slater (1913–1987), son-in-law of Levy,[1] opened the first retail outlet in Newark, New Jersey in 1948.[4]
Expansion
In 1963, it was reported that Channel Lumber had seven locations, all in New Jersey.[5]
By late 1975, the chain had 24 locations, 22 of which were in New Jersey.[1] W. R. Grace and Company purchased the company from the Slater family in 1977[3] for $19 million.[6] 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.[7]
In 1986, Channel's executives bought the company through a leveraged buyout.[8] 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.[6]