Issue Date:9/16/2002
Hardwood Floors E-News Tuesday, September 16, 2002 Issue 193 Next issue published September 30 Deadline for items: September 26 Send news to [email protected]
Thirty-four Attend NWFA's St. Louis School NWFA held its latest Advanced Installation, Sand and Finish School in St. Louis, Sept. 12-14. NWFA's Steve Seabaugh led instruction for the 34 students, along with the following volunteer instructors: Galen Fitzel, 3M Construction & Home Improvement; Todd McDonald and Brent Sorbet, Basic Coatings; John Blesing and Evandro Carvalho, Blesing's Flooring; Pat Cooney, BonaKemi USA; Justin Boone, Boone Wood Floors Inc.; Steve Marley, Cal Coast Hardwood Flooring; Jack Campbell, Campbell & Co. Hardwood Floors; Wayne Lee, Clarke American Sanders; Joe Weinmann, Floor One; Tom Tyers and Tom Peotter, Historic Floors of Oshkosh Inc.; Don Conner, Mullican Flooring; Rod Brown, Phoenix Hardwood Floors Inc.; Frank Kroupa, R&R Hardwood Floors Inc.; Mark W. Scheller, Scheller Hardwood Floors Inc.; and Todd Theisen, TMT Integrity Flooring. The school's sponsoring distributor was Midwest Flooring.
People News Finitec Hardwood Products (St. Lambert de Lauzon, Quebec) has appointed Neil Reid as sales representative for its cleaning, finish (Finitec and Carver brands) and acoustic products. Reid will cover the Ontario market. He brings to the company knowledge and experience gained from his work at Flecto Coatings. Reid can be reached at 888/838-4449.
Manufacturer News Horizon Forest Products (Raleigh, N.C.) has moved one of its branches to a new facility. The building, located just south of Raleigh, is 90,000 square feet and will operate as a branch, as well as a distribution facility for the other branches. The company says its plan is to buy in larger quantities and then distribute to the other branches on a daily basis, allowing access to more inventory on a quicker basis for all of Horizon's customers. The mailing address remains the same at P.O. Box 46809, Raleigh, NC 27620; however, the "ship to" address has changed to 1832 Eakes St., Fuquay Varina, NC 27526. The new phone number for the branch is 919/567-2666 and the toll free number remains the same.
Heritage Forest Products (Deland, Fla.) now is an official Clarke American distributor for the state of Florida. The company has a full-fledged pro-shop on-site with resident mechanic John Subucco.
As part of a year-long celebration, Derr Flooring Co. (Willow Grove, Pa.), recently hosted a "90th Anniversary" party for its more than 350 employees and family members. The event was held at Hershey Park in Hershey, Pa., and featured a full day of festivities, including amusement rides, games, shows and food.
Dantek & Associates Inc. (Laguna Hills, Calif.), an importer of hardwood flooring, will expand its operations to offer national container direct purchases through sales representatives. For more information on the program, write to Dantek & Associates Inc., 23011 Moulton Parkway, Suite D2, Laguna Hills, CA 92653, call 949/951-2130, fax 949/951-3238 or e-mail [email protected].
Distributor News USF Surface Preparation Group (Lakewood, Colo.) has announced the opening of its Hollywood, Fla., distribution center. Located south of Fort Lauderdale, this new location serves as a customer hub for the state of Florida and supports the more than 35 other USF Surface Preparation Group offices already located throughout North America. The new warehouse will house critical parts and media for a wide variety of equipment to keep the company's customers from experiencing long equipment downtime.
By the Numbers Average U.S. home prices increased by 6.48 percent in the second quarter of 2002 on a year-over-year basis, according to the House Price Index recently released by the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight (OFHEO). This strong performance pattern continued a pattern of gradual deceleration from the cyclical peak of 9.17 percent in the first quarter of 2001, just before the onset of the economic recession. The second-quarter report showed that none of the nine Census Divisions, and none of the states, experienced house price declines on a year-over-year basis. Furthermore, price declines were detected in only one of the 185 metropolitan areas ranked by OFHEO. The exception to the rule was San Jose, Calif. The National Association of Home Builders is expecting house price appreciation to stabilize in the 4 to 5 percent range before long.
Mark Your Calendar The NWFA will hold its "18th Annual Education Conference and 2003 Wood Flooring Expo" April 9-12 at the America's Center in St. Louis, Mo. Last year's event boasted more than 3,000 attendees, 475 trade show booths and two days of comprehensive educational opportunities, along with a variety of networking events. This year's event will include educational sessions, a trade show featuring more than 500 booths, networking opportunities, Floor of the Year awards, Design Competition awards and on-site installations. New in 2003 will be a Speed Competition to test the skills of the industry's best. For more information about the convention, visit www.nwfa.org, or call the association's offices toll free at 800/422-4556 (United States), 800/848-4424 (Canada) or 314/391-5161 (local and international).
The National Association of Floor Covering Distributors (NAFCD) will hold its 31st annual meeting, "Challenges, Choices, Changes," Sept. 21-24, 2002, at the Hilton in the Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando, Fla. The event will include speakers on a wide range of topics, including how to become a top revenue-gainer with lifelong customers; how to focus on the present with no more looking in the rearview mirror; how to improve warehouse productivity and how to get the most out of current technology systems. An added benefit is a session the NAFCD will offer that will expose attendees to the NAFCD/NWFA Road Map's content on "Tier Level Selling," a strategy that focuses on growth and new account development. For more information, visit www.nafcd.org.
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University will hold its "Advanced Sales Training for the Forest Products Industry" course Dec. 12-13, 2002, at the Donaldson Brown Hotel and Conference Center in Blacksburg, Va. The course will cover topics such as effective communication to improve sales; sales negotiations; improving sales through effective time management; industry trends; and relationship selling for the wood products industry. For more information, contact Bob Smith by phone at 540/231-5876 or by e-mail at [email protected].
Job Watch Representatives are wanted for wood flooring, transition mouldings and accessories. Seasoned independent sales representatives who have strong relationships with contractors, builders and distributors and who are able to purchase minimum 20-foot container-loads of wood flooring are encouraged to apply. All territories are open. Interested parties should fax a résumé to 949/951-3238.
NWFA member Creative Tile Concepts (Naples, Fla.) is looking for a hardwood flooring sales/project person. Experience in hardwood flooring is required. Interested parties should fax a résumé to 239/513-0158 or call Steve Agius at 239/513-0200.
More of a Good Thing Hardwood Floors subscribers will receive an additional issue of the magazine this year. In previous years, the October/November issue of Hardwood Floors came in the form of the ever-valuable Resource Book-your link to the people and companies in the hardwood flooring industry. However, this year October/November will be a regular issue of Hardwood Floors, packed with all the features and columns you look forward to in every issue. Then, in November, you will receive another issue-the Resource Book and NWFA Networking Guide.
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