Sullivan moves on from ‘Lumber’

Tom Sullivan is proving there is life after lumber.

Sullivan, the founder and former chairman of Lumber Liquidators, the wood-flooring retailer — who on Dec. 31 left the company under pressure — last week closed on a deal to sell Proton OnSite, a maker of hydrogen generators he owned for 10 years, for $70 million, and gained Bankruptcy Court approval to buy the Gracious Home chain for $4 million.

Just days earlier, while working to ramp up operations at the four Bordeaux, France, vineyards he bought last fall, his third child was born, a baby girl to join two sisters.

“I wouldn’t recommend buying a vineyard at this point,” Sullivan, 57, told The Post. “It’s a lot of work, and I’m not the most patient person.”

A serial entrepreneur, Sullivan also owns Cabinets To Go, a 54-store chain he founded in 2008.

But it was the hardwood-flooring business that put Sullivan in the na- tional spotlight.

A devastating March 2015 story on “60 Minutes” highlighted Lumber Liquidators’ China-sourced laminate flooring as having high levels of formaldehyde.

The Sullivan-led chain claimed the flooring met California’s stringent airsafety standards.

It would later pay a $2.5 million fine to settle allegations it violated those standards. The chain did not admit any wrongdoing.

The 375-store chain in 2015 also paid a $13.2 million fine for illegally importing lumber from eastern Russia.

Under those two storms, and with the chain’s sales and stock price tumbling, Sullivan exited the company.

Sullivan said he will never take another of his companies public.

“If I had it to do again, I wouldn’t do that,” Sullivan told The Post in a telephone interview.

The company, hit with several civil lawsuits, including some class-action suits from customers, has won more than a few court victories in the inter- vening months. Sullivan is more than a bit angry those wins didn’t get much media attention.

“‘60 Minutes’ never came back to report that story,” Sullivan said.

These days, Sullivan’s attention is on resuscitating the twice-bankrupt home goods retailer, Gracious Home, of which his former senior vice president at Lumber Liquidators, Rob Morrison, is the chief executive.

“I’d like to focus the company on carrying more unusual, one of a kind, stuff so everything doesn’t look like Pottery Barn,” Sullivan said, adding that he’ll be hands-off “once we get going” but initially, “I’ll be more involved than Rob would like.”

Another pet project is expanding his wines, which are now sold in New York and Florida, into California and Texas.

“I don’t know if the wine business was a good choice at this point,” he said. “You make the wine and can’t sell it for three or four years. I’m used to buying something today and selling it tomorrow.”