Diversified Carpet in Suttons Bay has officially changed hands as John Bourgault sold to Mike Oprish in April.
Bourgault, 80, has owned Diversified Carpet for 34 years after opening the business in 1990.
“If this is not some time to slow down, I don’t know what is,” he said. “My objective was to find someone to buy my business that would take care of it. I didn’t want to just sell it to anybody.”
Bourgault, a Massachusetts native, was introduced to Leelanau County through his second wife.
While in Massachusetts, Bourgault operated a restaurant chain called Friendly Ice Cream Corporation for 13 years along with his own restaurant for seven years throughout the 1980s.
Bourgault and Oprish met while playing the links at Bahle Farms Golf Course last summer in a random encounter.
“Wife (Brigid) and I were interested in business opportunities and met for lunch and he told us about his background,” Mike said. “We were kicking the tires around and wanted to figure out if it was the right opportunity.”
Mike and Brigid moved to the area from Carmel, California in 2021 after retiring from previous career in the hospitality industry. Mike started working for Bourgault part-time over the past six months to learn more about the business and techniques of how to clean carpets properly.
“I believe in him and Brigid ... they’ll do a good job with the customers,” Bourgault said.
Over the past three decades, Diversified Carpet has garnered a constant customer list of roughly 1,200, according to Bourgault.
Many of those customers call twice a year, yearly, bi-yearly, or even every three years. Churches, libraries and restaurants will call every year.
The business officially transitioned on April 19 as it all came to fruition.
Mike grew up in Dearborn, and Brigid grew up on the northwest side of Chicago. They met during a ski trip in Telluride, Colorado randomly and have been together for nearly 30 years.
“We traveled a lot together and both had careers in the hospitality industry along with spas and wineries,” Oprish said.
When they were ready to retire from the hospitality industry, the Traverse City area was top of the list among four or five other destinations.
Mike knows the existing customer base Bourgault has built up over the years will lead to a road of success.
Diversified Carpet covers from Northport to Empire, and steps into Grand Traverse County from time-totime.
Bourgault remembers moving into the area and going after hotels and apartments.
“I did that first, I had tons of apartments and lots of hotels and then I branched out through advertising,” he said.
Bourgault says some of the challenges of the carpet industry are battling with growing wood and laminate flooring products. They do area rugs at the shop in Suttons Bay. Cost for carpet have continued to go up along with everything, but with the competition of flooring, the price is staying down, according to Bourgault.
“One of the things that we never had any problem with is telling people if anything doesn’t come out the way you want, just call us and we will come back without grumbling,” Bourgault said. “We’ve always done that. If there was a spot that didn’t come out we’d always come right out and give it a second shot. So Mike knows that. He is very quality conscious, very detail conscious.”
Bourgault has always believed in visualization and coming up with ideas that he wants to chase. When he first started the business, Bourgault imagined having a house on the peninsula. He did that, then grabbed another house, along with a brick-and-mortar shop where he has a duplex that he rents.
“That was all pictured beforehand. You have to have a picture of where you want to go before you can go there,” he said. “I would advise new business owners to have multiple streams of income because I’m not just in the carpet cleaning business. I’m in the real estate industry as well with some in Traverse City and in Suttons Bay.
Bourgault will be spending his extra free time playing plenty of golf, and of course, traveling out east more to spend time with his children and grandchildren.
“I would like to thank all the customers who supported Diversified Carpet all these years. It’s been very rewarding. I’ve made a lot of friends as well as acquaintances and they’re all great people. Unfortunately, we’ve lost some with all of us getting a little older, but these friendships have meant a lot to me and I appreciate the people in Leelanau County especially,” Bourgault said.
