Issue Date:4/15/2003
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Issue Date:4/15/2003
Hardwood Floors E-News Tuesday, April 15, 2003 Issue 209 Next issue published April 28, 2003 Deadline for items: April 23, 2003 Send news to @woodfloorbusiness.com
New NWFA Leadership in Place During St. Louis Convention A record 301 companies exhibited in 525 booths at the 2003 NWFA Education Conference and Wood Flooring Expo held in St. Louis April 9-12. Attendees kicked off the show at a jazz and blues reception on Wednesday night, then took advantage of an expanded schedule of Expo hours, 18 seminars and an opening keynote address by football legend Mike Ditka. Attendance figures were not available at press time.
At the annual meeting held Saturday morning, Horizon Forest Products' David Williams completed his two years as president of the NWFA, and former vice president Wayne Cotton of Design Flooring Distributors stepped into the leading role. Other executive committee members now include Joe Audino of Rode Bros. Floors, vice president; Mullican Flooring's Don Conner, treasurer; and Ken Schumacher of Schumacher & Co., secretary. The Board of Directors now includes William "Bill" Costello, Angela Crowl, Galen Fitzel, Tom Gormley, Leonard Hall, Glen Miller, Yvette Monroe, Neil Moss, Richard Poirier, Mark Weglowski and Bruce Whisenhunt. Janet Sullivan, Donna Millard and Barry Nelson were named to one-year ex-officio director terms on the board.
Integraf Makes Impressive Showing in Floor of the Year Competition At the Floor of the Year awards ceremony on Thursday morning, Integraf (Moscow, Russia) won an unprecedented six trophies for five floors, taking home the awards for Members' Choice (Master Division), Floor of the Year (Master Division), Best Manufacturer Finished Design, Best Room Design Using All Forms of Wood Technology, and honorable mention awards in the Best Job-Site Finished Craftsmanship and Design and Best Limited Species Design categories. Parquet by Dian (Gardena, Calif.) took home two trophies, winning for Best Job-Site Finished Craftsmanship and Design and Best Residential Application Design. In the Expert Division, the Members' Choice award went to Majestic Wood Floors Inc. (Frederick, Md.) and the Floor of the Year award went to R&R Hardwoods (Boise, Idaho). Other award winners included Rode Bros. Floors (Los Angeles) for Best Limited Species Design, Johnson Hardwood Floors (Ray, Mich.) for Best Commercial Application Design and Nash Floor Co. (Rockville, Md.) for Best Showroom Design. Endurance Floor Co. (Miami, Fla.) took home an honorable mention in the Best Residential Application category. Keynote speaker Mike Ditka was on hand to help present the trophies to the Floor of the Year winners.
Attendees Tour New State-of-the-Art NWFA Headquarters Convention attendees were treated to tours of the new NWFA headquarters facility on Thursday and Friday, and NWFA founding father Virgil Hendricks was on hand to assist the NWFA Board of Directors during the official ribbon-cutting ceremony Thursday morning. The new facility features state-of-the-art classroom and practice area facilities and will be home to all future NWFA training schools in St. Louis. The new property will allow the NWFA room to grow for many years into the future, says NWFA Executive Director Ed Korczak.
Claude Taylor, Others Recognized During Friday Awards Luncheon At the Industry Awards Luncheon on Friday, many people were recognized for their contributions to the wood flooring industry and NWFA. Industry veteran Claude Taylor joined a select group by being inducted into NWFA's Hall of Fame. Taylor began work in the industry in 1949 and went on to work in many capacities in the wood flooring industry, including serving as NOFMA president twice and serving six years on the NWFA Board of Directors. He retired in 1995.
Degree recipients also were recognized at the luncheon. Those earning Craftsman Degrees (for professional wood flooring education) were: Steve Agius, Susan Dixon, Mike Farrell, Gregory Fuller, Carol Goodwin, George Goodwin, Brian Greenwell, J. Michael Hawk, Stan Hill, Harold Hussman, Vikki Johnson, Rick Jones, Stan Lawson, Steve Marley, Curtis Richard, Joe Rincon, Jim Schumacher, Todd Theisen, A.J. Winstead and Marlin Yoder. Earning the Master Craftsman Degree (for advanced knowledge and demonstrated wood flooring skills) were: Stan Abel, Matt Bingham, Pat Cooney, Len Daubler, Leonard Hall, Michael Longshore, Sprigg Lynn, Glen Miller, Yvette Monroe, Kevin Mullany and Joe Weinmann. The Vanguard Degree (for leadership and service to the industry) went to: Tom Anderson, John Blesing, Joe Boone Jr., Evandro Carvalho, Mark Long, Jack Rogers, Steve Seabaugh and Genia Smith. Meanwhile, Advanced Master Degrees (for those who have earned Master Craftsman degrees and continue to devote time and energy toward advancing the wood flooring industry) went to: Coley Armstrong, Jack Campbell, Christine Coates, Charles Dixon, Robert Goldstein, John Goss, Wayne Lee, Larry LeFevre, David Marzalek, Robert Moffett and Richard Poirier. Ambassador Degrees (for those who have earned the Vanguard Degree and continue to serve the association) were awarded to: Daniel Boone, Don Conner, Wayne Cotton, Angela Crowl, Galen Fitzel, Mel Hollis, Neil Moss and Ken Schumacher. The NWFA also recognized those who earned certification during the last year. They are: P.J. Hart (installation only), David Alderman (sand-and-finish only), Dean Jackson, Richard Conway, John Saunders and Paul Williford (both installation and sand-and-finish).
Mark Your Calendar for Future Convention Dates Next year's NWFA Conference and Wood Flooring Expo will move to Charlotte, N.C., April 14-17. In 2005, Honolulu will host the convention April 12-16, and in 2006, the convention will travel to Baltimore April 26-29.
Coverings 2003 Sees Attendance Dip in Wartime Coverings 2003 was held March 24-27, bringing together 1,457 exhibitors of ceramic tile, natural stone and other floor coverings and 26,899 total attendees. Although total attendance was down 12.5 percent, show officials were pleased with the turnout. "Considering what was going on in the outside world, the figures for Coverings 2003 are remarkable," said Rick Church, chairman of the Coverings board of governors. The long-expected war in Iraq broke out just days before the show began.
NWFA had a booth at the show, as did approximately 20 NWFA members, keeping the presence of NWFA member companies at about the same level as last year. These wood flooring exhibitors-still a small segment of the primarily tile and stone show-managed to garner some solid leads from traffic that was good in quality if not in quantity. "It was more of a tile show and we are purely hardwood flooring, but it had its advantages because we stuck out from all the tile companies," says Grace Lee, marketing assistant for Johnson Premium Hardwood Floors. Hal Koller of Aacer Flooring experienced much of the same. "We had some fairly keen interest, but it was pretty light as far as volume."
People News Fortifiber Building Product System (Reno, Nev.) has hired two sales representatives. Steve Safran of Steve Safran Inc. (Dunwoody, Ga.) will represent the company in the southeast states of Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Florida and the Carolinas. Lenny Wachowiak of The Global Quest Group (Arlington, Texas) will represent Fortifiber in the south-central states of Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Louisiana. Safran and Wachowiak will handle the company's line of vapor and moisture-retardant underlayments for wood flooring and tile applications. They also will represent the company's full line of surface protection and installation products. Safran and Wachowiak can be reached through the Fortifiber Sales Center at 800/773-4777.
Demopolis Hardwood Flooring (Demopolis, Ala.) has announced Justin Duke, formerly the sales manager of Piedmont Hardwood Flooring, has joined the company. Duke will work out of Macon, Ga. He can be reached by phone at 478/405-2299, by fax at 478/405-0004 or by e-mail at [email protected].
Manufacturer News Mullican Flooring (Johnson City, Tenn.) recently sponsored a Boy Scouts of America tree planting effort in southwest Virginia and northeast Tennessee. On the weekend of April 5-6, the Boy Scouts of the Lonesome Pine district in southwest Virginia planted 3,000 northern red oak trees on Mountain Forest Products' property in Wise County, Va., and Troop 28 of Carter County and Troop 103 in Jonesborough, Tenn., planted 2,000 northern red oak trees on Garland Hardwood's property in Jonesborough. The Tennessee Forestry Department and Mountain Forest Products donated the dibble bars used to plant the trees.
Distributor News Capella Hardwood Floors (Vicksburg, Miss.) has named Elias Wilf Corp. (Owings Mills, Md.) as distributor for its product line in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. Elias Wilf's area of service will include Maryland, the District of Columbia, Delaware, Virginia, New Jersey, eastern Pennsylvania and a portion of West Virginia.
Sealflex Industries (Costa Mesa, Calif.) has appointed NRF Distributors (Augusta, Maine) its distributor of moisture-retardant flooring adhesives and primers for New England and upstate New York. Sealflex representative Bill Blasek will provide technical assistance. The company also has named David C. Greenbaum Company (San Barnardino, Calif.) distributor of its flooring adhesives and primers for Arizona, southern Nevada and southern California.
Derr Flooring Co. (Willow Grove, Pa.) has opened its seventh location at 6 Bellecor Drive, New Castle, DE 19720. Max Mauer, who can be reached at 302/323-1500, manages this stocking branch.
Morelock Wood Products (Bend, Ore.) has announced partnership agreements with Atlantic West Flooring Distributors (Denver) and T&G Hardwood (Roseville, Minn.) to distribute its high-end flooring, moldings and accessories on a national level. Atlantic West signed in February 2003 to become the exclusive distributor of Morelock's products in the states of Colorado, Wyoming and New Mexico. T&G Hardwood is now the exclusive distributor of Morelock's flooring in the eastern portions of North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota, western Wisconsin and northern Iowa.
By the Numbers The National Association of Home Builders' (NAHB) Housing Market Index (HMI) remained unchanged at 52 in April. While the component gauging current home sales slipped one point to 58 in April, the component gauging expectations for the next six months registered a six-point gain to 62, and the component gauging traffic of prospective buyers remained even with its March reading at 35. One-fourth of the builders also reported some decline in buyer traffic after the war broke out on March 19, although there was virtually no change in the cancellation rate for sales contracts signed earlier. Some builders reacted to these events (the buildup and outbreak) by increasing sales incentives to buyers, such as free upgrades or optional items in homes.
Job Watch Wood Factory Ltd. (Sutton, United Kingdom) has openings for eastern, southern and midwestern sales representatives to sell its wood flooring and oak paneling products to flooring distributors. Hard-working, self-motivated and self-sufficient candidates are required for these challenging positions, and flooring industry experience is required. Candidates should e-mail résumés to [email protected] or fax 44-1252-794-998.
Mark Your Calendar The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) will hold its semiannual Construction Forecast Conference April 24, 2003, at its National Housing Center in Washington, D.C. Nationally recognized housing industry analysts will join NAHB's Economics Group to examine such issues as economic recovery, housing industry performance, housing prices, financial markets and more.
Correction In the March 17 issue of Hardwood Floors' E-News, there was a Job Watch notice for Preverco Inc. (St. Augustin-de-Desmaures, Quebec) about openings for two account managers. The e-mail address for submitting a résumé to Marie-Claude Perreault for these positions should have been listed as [email protected]. Those still interested in the positions should e-mail a résumé to the above address or fax 418/878-8931.
NWFA Member Services NWFA members can ship air express for less by using the services of Airborne Express. For a free Airborne Express starter kit, call 800-MEMBERS (800/636-2377). For international express delivery, they can use the services of Emery Worldwide. For more information, call 800-MEMBERS (800/636-2377).