Gulf Central Distribution: The End is Near
Submitted by advisor on Sat, 11/22/2008 - 11:33am.
Gulf Central Distribution, a Florida distributor started 46 years ago by Shorty Plumley, and continued by his daughter Mellissa Stein, is organizing itself for eventual shutdown. Gulf Central is liquidating inventory, assets, and real estate in an orderly way with the hope of closing their doors by summer of 2009. Ms. Stein says that there is no financial distress related to the decision. The decision is one based more on being fed up with the entire bloody business.
Who isn't these days? Gulf Central has through the years distributed a wide range of famous appliance brands. Until closure, Gulf continues to distribute and serve its customers and vendors.
Gulf Central
I am sorry to here that Gulf Central Corporation will soon be shutting down, although it’s not a surprise in these difficult times. Gulf Central was actually started by my father, Alton Floyd and his partner Bill Bartmus in 1962 as an Amana distributor, and also sold Roper and Learjet (8 track tape players). In 1974 Amana decided to go direct with a factory branch in Tampa and Shorty rebuilt the company with Jenn-Air, Thermador, Sub Zero and others lines. There was a time when distributors like Gulf Central could pick up unique specialty product lines, work hard, get them on display and make them into stars. It takes much deeper pockets now to compete against the "Me too and Good enough" products being sold by every major appliance brand today. Doug Floyd
Gulf Central
Sorry to see this happen. Too many people think distributors don't do enough when in fact the good ones do and in the case of the company I was with through the 90's they helped pay our way and did a great job. They all got dumped later on . What a deal . Good luck