Issue Date:7/3/2002
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Issue Date:7/3/2002
Hardwood Floors E-News Monday, July 8, 2002 Issue 189 Next issue published July 22 Deadline for items July 18 Send news to mailto:[email protected]
NWFA Draws Full House in Canada NWFA's latest Installation and Sand-and-Finish School was held in Toronto, Canada, June 25-28. The school was sold out, with approximately 50 students in attendance. Volunteer instructors for the school were: Jim Schumacher, 3M Construction & Home Improvement; Stan Abel, Appalachian Flooring Ltd.; Brent Sorbet, Basic Coatings; Eric Bennett and Roy Veerkamp, BonaKemi USA Inc.; Bob Russell, Dura Seal/Fabulon; Mike Rafferty, Galaxy Floor Sanding Machines Ltd.; Tom Peotter, Historic Floors of Oshkosh Inc.; Steve Sharko, Lauzon Distinctive Hardwood Flooring; Curtis Richard, Primatech Inc.; Glen Miller, Satin Finish Hardwood Flooring Ltd.; Mary Thur, Tembec Inc.; and Karl Stafflinger, Virginia Abrasives Corp. The school's sponsoring distributor was Satin Finish Hardwood Flooring Ltd. Richard Poirier of Dimension International taught the Dynamic Sales class at the same location June 24.
Taylor Lumber Receives Presidential "E" Award U.S. Secretary of Commerce Don Evans recently presented Taylor Lumber (McDermott, Ohio) with the Presidential "E" Award for excellence in exporting. The award recognizes U.S. businesses and organizations that are clients of the U.S. Department of Commerce's U.S. Commercial Service and have used their services to achieve outstanding growth and innovation in exports or export service. "These awards demonstrate what can be accomplished through public-private sector cooperation," Evans says. "The Bush Administration is committed to helping grow our economy by boosting exports from small and medium-sized firms such as Taylor Lumber. When we help these businesses grow by guiding them through the export process, they in turn help the economy and create high-paying jobs for the working people of Ohio. I thank Taylor Lumber for doing a job that is so valuable to the American economy."
Johnson Abrasives Adds to Distribution Network Johnson Abrasives Co. Inc. (Jaffrey, N.H.) has made several additions to its distribution network over the past few months. The following new dealers and distributors have committed to stocking the company's professional wood floor finishing product line: BKL Supply (Syracuse, N.Y.); Boston Wood Floor Supply (Dorchester & Malden, Mass.); Bradford Hardwood Floors (Nashville, Tenn.); Connecticut Floor Store (Stamford, Conn.); Nanette Distributors (St. Louis, Mo.); and Noor Designer Floor Coverings (Bryn Mawr, Pa.). Additionally, Access Distributing (San Antonio, Texas) and Carpet Products/Belknap White (Rochester, N.Y.) will stock the company's professional concrete and subfloor prep product line. All of these companies have committed to servicing Johnson Abrasives' current direct customers, as well as their area contractors, with quicker service and competitive prices on a local inventory of the company's complete line. Current direct customers are encouraged to contact Johnson Abrasives' new distribution partners and will be rewarded with promotional items after verification of order placement.
People News Groleau Inc. (Beloeil, Quebec) has appointed Daniel Seguin as vice president/CEO. His role will be to increase the company's market share through exports to the United States, Europe and Asia.
Junckers Hardwood Inc. (Anaheim, Calif.) has appointed two new territory sales representatives and has increased territory for one commercial sales specialist. Quicksilver Jeff Rose will operate from the Hayward, Calif., facility and will service the residential market in the North Bay territory. His main focus will be on existing dealers with high call frequency. Prior to his appointment at Junckers, Rose was a top salesperson at a retailer specializing in floor coverings. Judee Sickles will operate from the Anaheim, Calif., facility and will service the Los Angeles/Ventura/Santa Barbara territory. In her new position, she will establish relationships with current residential dealers and develop new ones. Sickles has sales, design and teaching experience. Anjanette Gates, previously Junckers' Southern California commercial sales specialist, will continue to operate from the Anaheim facility with frequent trips to the Hayward facility. She will continue to work heavily with the A&D community. These individuals will report to David McCowan, western regional sales manager.
Primatech Inc. (Quebec City, Quebec) has added M. Dominic Richard to its sales team. Richard is responsible for inside sales and customer service.
Manufacturer News Austwood Australia (Tamworth, Australia) will open its rebuilt Baradine Sawmilling Co., in August. This plant is the largest Australian cypress board production plant in the country, providing the boards that go into the company's Aussie Gold grade flooring for distribution throughout the United States and Canada.
Decorative Flooring Manufacturing (Marietta, Ga.) has moved. Its new factory is located at 305 Third St., Port St. Joe, FL 32456. In addition to increased square footage for the factory, the new location will include a 4,000-square-foot showroom. The toll-free number (888/928-8665) and the Web site (www.decorativeflooring.com) remain the same, but the new direct number for the company is 850/229-7720.
Anton Lorenz GmbH & CoKG (Niederzier, Germany) has announced its Royal two-ply parquet has been awarded a test certificate issued by the State of Germany. The certificate refers to the reaction of parquet to fire and confirms the company's two-layer parquet to be the single product in its class listed in the Building Material Class B1. The product qualifies for use in office buildings and public buildings such as hotels, restaurants, hospitals, schools and ships.
Domco Tarkett Inc. (Farnham, Quebec) has announced that its various divisions-Domco Tarkett Commercial, Domco Tarkett Residential and Harris Tarkett, its hardwood division-will increase prices. The Domco Tarkett Commercial and Residential divisions will increase prices by 2 to 7 percent for select product lines distributed in North America. Harris Tarkett will implement a price increase of 4 to 6 percent on entry level, prefinished solid products and other select items by the end of the year.
Ua Wood Floors (Taichung, Taiwan) has opened an engineered flooring factory in Taichung, Taiwan. The new facility is the only flooring factory in Taiwan to combine cold pressing with hot pressing using WBP glue for guaranteed delamination-free engineered hardwood flooring, the company says The company also has announced the appointment of Woodemark Corp. (Taichung, Taiwan) as the exclusive export marketing and sales company for its Ua brand of engineered hardwood flooring.
Distributor News Design Flooring Distributors Inc. (Deerfield Beach, Fla.) has moved to a larger facility. The new address is 3077 S.W. 13th Drive, Deerfield Beach, FL 33442. The phone and fax numbers remain the same at 954/481-1900 and 954/481-2001, respectively.
Continental Hardwood & Supply Inc. (Waterford, Mich.) has opened a distribution center in Waterford, Mich. The facility, which offers hardwood flooring and a complete line of sand-and-finish supplies, is located at 4682 W. Walton near Dixie Hwy. The phone number is 248/673-1200.
Sunshine Wood Flooring Inc. (Flushing, N.Y.) has set up a new distribution center in New Jersey. The contact information for the new center is 3E Joanna Court, East Brunswick, NJ 08816; phone: 721/651-7080, fax: 721/651-7030; and e-mail: [email protected].
Coastal Hardwood Inc. (Mobile, Ala.) has opened a new branch location at 4825 Woodlane Circle, Suite 103, Tallahassee, FL. The contact is Burt Register, at 850/562-0549.
Essex Silver-Line Corp. (Dracut, Mass.) has announced the addition of three distributors: Flushing Floor (Flushing, NY); Wood Floor Unlimited (Shreve, Ohio); and S&S Floor Covering (Los Angeles).
On the Web Mr. Hardwoods Inc. (Jupiter, Fla.) has updated its Web site at www.mrhardwoods.com to include more product information. In addition to product photos and links to other Web sites, price pages, an "online special" page and an order request form also are parts of the improved site.
Job Watch Country Wood Flooring (Los Angeles), a wood flooring manufacturer with mills throughout Northeast China, currently is seeking outside salespeople nationwide. For more information, contact Peter Feng at 909/444-1606 or e-mail [email protected].
A major hardwood flooring manufacturer in South America is seeking a flooring and moldings sales representative in the New England and South Atlantic areas of the United States to call on builders, lumber yards and contractors for its unfinished line. Fax résumés to 305/937-0034.
By the Numbers Sales of new single-family homes surged 8.1 percent to a record high seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.03 million units in May, according to the Commerce Department. In addition, the department made substantial upward revisions to home sales numbers for each of the last four months. Interest rates on long-term mortgages hovered around 6.8 percent in May and have gone as low as 6.63 percent in recent weeks. Sales rose in every region of the country in May. Rebounding from a previous dip, the Northeast posted the biggest gain of 26.4 percent, while the South, West and Midwest posted more moderate gains of 10.6 percent, 4.3 percent and 2.7 percent, respectively. Meanwhile, the inventory of new homes for sale rose just over 1 percent from April to 324,000 units in May.
Mark Your Calendar The 2003 International Builders Show will be held Jan. 21-24 in Las Vegas. The show will have more than 1,200 building industry-related exhibits and more than 75,000 building industry professionals in attendance. To date, close to 1,000 exhibiting manufacturers that sell to the residential and light commercial building industry have reserved more than 610,000 square feet of exhibit space. For more information, fax your name, company name, address, phone, fax and e-mail address to 202/266-8223.
Architectural Digest and Merchandise Mart Properties Inc. (MMPI), along with co-sponsor The New York Times, will hold the Architectural Digest Home Design Show March 6-9, 2003, at Pier 94 in New York City. Originally scheduled for this fall at the Javits Center, the show has changed dates in order to take advantage of a larger venue. Available exhibit space currently is being allocated to approved applicants. For more information or to obtain an exhibitor application, contact Troy Hanson at 312/527-7531, fax 312/527-7888 or e-mail thanson@ mmart.com.
NWFA will hold its "People Always Come First for Superior Performance" Virtual Seminar July 17. Bill Finnie, managing director of Grace Advisors' Business Consulting Group, St. Louis, Mo., is the featured speaker. Participants in the seminar will learn: The Jack Welch 20-70-10 rule for getting the right people on the bus and the wrong people off; the "Six Bs†for building capability; the VOICE approach for building commitment; and how to integrate people strategies into the four steps for achieving Clear Market Leadership. For more information, call Glyphics Communications at 800/651-7916, fax NWFA at 801/365-0595, or visit www.nwfa.org.
Member Services Planning a summer vacation and need larger car for all of your gear? NWFA members are eligible to receive year-round discounts with both Hertz Car Rental, 800/654-2200 (in Canada, call 800/263-0600) or National Car Rental, 800/227-7368. For both business or leisure travel, let Hertz or National know you're an NWFA member. Call NWFA for your member discount card necessary at the time of rental.