MEET OUR EXECUTIVE TEAM
MEET OUR EXECUTIVE TEAM
Carlos Soares
President
Dave Soares
VP, Operations
Jeff Parker
VP, Finance
Daryl Stayura
VP, Sales
Jason Hill
General Manager, Edmonton
Nick DeVito
General Manager, Distribution
OUR HISTORY AT A GLANCE
Armed with a business plan and a dream, Carlos Soares establishes a wood flooring company based in Calgary, dedicated to forward-thinking ideas about craftsmanship and design. Carlos is inspired by the most beautiful hardwood flooring installation he has ever seen, in St. John Cantius Church, Chicago, and names his company Divine Hardwood. His vision, as a flooring supplier and installer, is to bring that level of beauty and originality into the home by creating unique, custom hardwood flooring. Carlos partners with environmentally conscious, quality-driven manufacturers that buy into his approach. The Calgary showroom opens.
Carlos is diagnosed with stage 3 cancer - pelvic sarcoma. Determined to overcome this setback, he undergoes life-saving surgery and several rounds of chemotherapy. With his mind and spirit focused on recovery, Carlos becomes cancer free. His journey motivates him to help others battling cancer, especially children.
Patience and dedication pay off. Consumer demand has increased exponentially. Dave Soares, Managing Partner and Carlos's brother, founds Hardwood Flooring Direct Calgary, and opens Divine Flooring's first store on Fairmount Drive. He continues to develop Divines' signature approach to personalized customer service - highly caring, knowledgeable staff who are great at communication and follow-up.
To be fully integrated, the business invests in a 500-square-foot custom wood working shop. No more outsourcing is needed.
Increasingly, western Canada's top home builders and discerning consumers are turning to Divine for their flooring projects. The company opens Hardwood Flooring Direct in Edmonton. Fresh ideas, a passion for design and craftsmanship, and the company's trademark customer service continue to drive the business forward.
Dave Soares opens a showroom in Edmonton. Here customers can view a stunning array of hardwood flooring samples. Friendly staff consults with homeowners to select a floor that fits both their budget and their vision for what they want their home to be.
Business keeps growing, and Divine is running out of storage space! It begins expansion of its state-of-the-art warehouse on Ryan Road in Calgary in order to house an increased volume of flooring materials.
Managing partners Nick and Tony DeVito extend Divine's geographical presence beyond Calgary and Edmonton by opening a showroom in Vancouver. The floor in showroom wins the 2008 National Wood Flooring Association's Floor of the Year Award for the Best Commercial/Showroom. The floor illustrates how working with prefinished engineered products does not limit creative choices. As Carlos puts it, "Different colors, myriad species and unique angles are all at the craftsman's disposal when installing a prefinished engineered floor."
Divine Flooring's distribution reach expands as Runway Flooring Couture adds Divine Flooring to its distribution line-up. With warehouses in Vancouver, Edmonton and Calgary, Runway brings 40 years of experience to serving clients across North America.
The Edmonton Showroom is completed. Designed by the award-winning Vancouver architectural and design firm False Creek Design Group, it is, in their words, unique: "This hardwood flooring retail space takes an upscale fashion apparel approach focusing on the product and the heightened levels of customer engagement in a stylish interior environment... The experience is welcoming and tactile, inviting the clients to touch and inspect the product."
Expansion of the Calgary corporate headquarters and warehouse on Ryan Road is completed. In-house service and operations include:
Divine Flooring unveils a fresh new logo and identity.
The Calgary showroom undergoes a complete renovation. Designed by the award-winning Calgary architectural firm McKinley-Burkhart, the showroom, in their words, "takes flooring to the next level. This crisp white space evokes feelings of a modern art gallery... a bright, open, and serene space welcomes guests and provides expansive space to lay out samples and get to know the product."
Divine Flooring launches a lifestyle-oriented online flooring catalogue. Its layout makes it easy and fun to select flooring that matches the homeowner's tastes and style of living.
Divine Flooring introduces several flooring collections and sells through distribution channels in Canada and the US.
Divine Flooring aligns all of its owned showrooms to the Calgary Flagship model and opens a showroom in Chicago.
Divine Flooring creates Barley & Smoke - a charity event to raise funds for pediatric cancer related causes.
Barley & Smoke is a community event that unites local restaurants, breweries, and businesses in a combined effort to raise money for children fighting cancer. Sadly, only 5% of all funds raised to fight cancer goes to pediatric needs and our kids deserve more. Barley & Smoke chose Kids Cancer Care Foundation (KCCF) for its programs that are uniquely designed to meet the needs of the whole family at each stage of the cancer journey, from diagnosis through treatment and beyond. In its first year, Barley & Smoke raised a total of $115,701.