Issue Date:11/28/2005
Hardwood Floors E-News Monday, November 28, 2005 Issue 277 Next issue published December 12, 2005 Deadline for items: December 7, 2005 Send news to [email protected]
Manufacturer News
Oshkosh Designs (Winneconne, Wis.) recently received the 2005 Award for Design Excellence (ADEX) for two of its products. Op, a wood medallion, won the ADEX Platinum Award, while Koi, a marble medallion, won the ADEX Silver Award. ADEX is sponsored by
Design Journal and recognizes product design of furniture, fixtures and furnishings marketed to the design trade.
Mannington Mills Inc. (Salem, N.J.) named Deborah Bell the grand-prize winner of its inaugural "Stand on a Better World" contest November 17 at the Ritz-Carlton in Philadelphia. The other finalists included Kip Tiernan and Sharen Trembath. Bell won $25,000 to donate to a charity organization. Nominations for the 2006 "Stand on a Better World Awards" will be accepted starting March 2006 at www.standonabetterworld.com.
ICA Group (Civitanova Marche, Italy), a manufacturer of wood coatings, has released a three-year investment plan. Primarily, the company plans to invest in a new storage warehouse, a foreign sales office and refining its manufacturing processes to develop new products and improve product standards. For more information, visit www.icaspa.com.
Distributor News
Select Flooring Dist. Inc. (Overland Park, Kan.) has completed its move to its new location at 8980 Bond, Overland Park, KS 66214.
Contractor/Dealer News
Duffy's Hardwood Floors (Shakopee, Minn.) has opened a new showroom in Shakopee and is seeking milling companies, abrasive companies, tool manufacturers and finish companies to sell directly to Duffy's as a distributor. For more information, contact
Bob Duffy by phone at 952/445-5162, by e-mail at
[email protected] or by mail at RDD Inc. dba Duffy's Hardwood Floors, 1350 First Ave. E., Shakopee, MN 55379.
People News
Capella Wood Floors (Vicksburg, Miss.) has appointed
Clifford W. DeLoach regional sales manager. DeLoach has been in the hardwood flooring industry for more than two decades and will oversee Capella's sales efforts in the mid-Atlantic region of the United States.
Lauzon Distinctive Hardwood Flooring (Papineauville, Quebec) has named D.C. Mangimelli II regional sales manager, Southeast U.S., and Carlo Di Pietro marketing service manager. Mangimelli has more than 21 years of experience in the floor covering business, including four years at Mohawk Industries, where he specialized in the sales and marketing of hardwood and other flooring products in the retail and builder segment of the Southeast U.S. Pietro worked for three years at Uniboard Canada, where he was responsible for several marketing projects.
Preverco (St-Augustin-de-desmaures, Quebec) has hired four sales representatives. For its U.S. markets, Jim Merdian will cover the mid-Atlantic region; Rick Smethurst will represent New England and the Tri-State area; and Greg Phelps will cover the Midwest. Colin French joins Preverco as a sales representative for Ontario. He will be responsible for growth within the builders market and will also manage some accounts in the greater Toronto area.
By the Numbers
Hardwood flooring shipments for October 2005 were reported at 47,503,000 square feet, an increase of 2 percent compared with the same month in 2004, according to
NOFMA: The Wood Flooring Manufacturers Association. Year-to-date shipments for the first 10 months of 2005 totaled 441,300,000 square feet, exceeding the 434,150,000 square feet from the same time period in 2004 by 2 percent. The NOFMA data is from hardwood flooring manufacturers in the U.S., corresponding to actual figures from a majority of the known producing units, plus projections representing units for which actual data is occasionally provided or not provided. The flooring shipments reported include solid prefinished and unfinished oak, beech, birch, maple, hickory/pecan, ash, cherry and walnut.
The housing market showed signs of cooling off in October as the pace of new home construction and the issuance of building permits both declined, according to the U.S. Commerce Department. Total housing starts were down 5.6 percent for the month at a seasonally adjusted rate of 2.014 million units. The October pace was 2.3 percent below the same month last year, but starts were up by 5.3 percent on a year-to-date basis. Single-family construction dipped 3.7 percent to 1.704 million units for the month, still 2.3 percent above the pace of a year ago. Year-to-date single-family starts increased by 6.3 percent.
The overall November 2005 National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index (HMI) was down eight points from October to 60. The index measuring single-family sales decreased eight points from 74 in October to 66 in November, and prospective sales for the next six months also dropped, from 73 to 64. The NAHB cites lower measures of consumer confidence as well as rising mortgage rates and other factors as reasons for the decline in market expectations by single-family homebuilders.
The growth of remodeling activity has slowed moderately in the third quarter of 2005, according to the National Association of Home Builders' (NAHB) Remodeling Market Index (RMI). These results receded from the seasonally adjusted second quarter results of 2005 but still remained in the positive growth range. The current market conditions index dropped one and a half points from 52.4 to 50.9, while the future expectations index moved down from 52.8 to 51.8.
In Memoriam
Arnold F. Dickson, co-chairman and founding committee member of the
International Standards and Training Alliance (INSTALL), passed away October 31 from a heart attack at age 70. Dickson played a key role in expanding INSTALL's alliance program by serving as co-chairman of the
INSTALL Labor Management Committee since its inception in 1990. He helped steer the creation of the program to address the lack of qualified floor covering professionals in the industry. Based on his commitment to raise the skill levels of floor covering professionals, Dickson played a key role in expanding the INSTALL alliance program, which uses technical and education experts from leading mills and manufacturers as advisors for the INSTALL curriculum. A native of Pittsburgh, Dickson had previously served as the president of the
Floor Coverers Local 1759 for 16 years, during which his main focus was increasing quality of installation through better training for union apprentices and journeymen.
Mark Your Calendar
The NWFA has announced its Sales Training and Wood Flooring Inspection Schools for 2006. The dates are: -
Sales Training April 26 (Baltimore, NWFA Convention). This school offers two three-hour workshops. -
Wood Flooring Inspection School March 6-10 (St. Louis, NWFA Training Center) September 25-29 (St. Louis, NWFA Training Center)
In 2006, BonaKemi USA Inc. will offer four- and five-day sanding and finishing schools for professional hardwood flooring contractors, floor covering dealers and salespeople. The classes allow hands-on training using Bona's complete line of products. The 2006 class dates are: January 10-13 (Aurora, Colo.) February 7-10 (Aurora, Colo.) April 18-21 (Anaheim, Calif.) July 24-28: Beginner's Only School (Aurora, Colo.) August 15-18 (Aurora, Colo.) October 10-13 (West Coast, TBA) November 7-10 (Aurora, Colo.)
Mullican Flooring will again offer its Tech 101 seminars for 2006 at its location in Johnson City, Tenn. These two-day sessions cover topics ranging from selling and marketing to consumer expectations to adhesives. The 2006 dates are: February 27-28 April 3-4 May 15-16 June 26-27 August 14-15 November 13-14
Job Watch
Long Floor Distributing LLC (Beltsville, Md.) has an opening for an outside sales representative in the Northern Virginia market. The ideal candidate will have at least three years of experience in the hardwood flooring industry as a contractor or in sales. Long Floor offers an excellent compensation package with health, dental and retirement benefits. Résumés should be sent via e-mail to
[email protected] or by mail to
Luther Carroll, P.O. Box 5223, Richmond, VA 23220.
Erickson's Flooring (Ferndale, Mich.) is seeking a dynamic, driven-to-succeed, team-oriented salesperson. This person must reside in the metropolitan Detroit area, be willing to travel and expect to be paid for performance but understand that "making a difference" will be rewarded even more. The company is looking for a person with leadership skills, sales interaction skills and a willingness to independently develop technical and product knowledge. Résumés should be sent with salary requirements to Paul Hamilton, 1013 Orchard Street, Ferndale, MI 48220 or by fax at 248/543-7912. For more information, call 810/499-5188.
Corrections
The last issue of
Hardwood Floors' E-News listed the incorrect e-mail address for
Bob Sweezey of
Stauf USA LLC. The correct address is
[email protected].
NWFA Member Services
Did you know that increasing your sales just 5 percent by extending credit to credit-worthy accounts could increase your profits more than 20 percent? By eliminating billing errors, late billing and failure to follow up quickly when accounts become overdue, you can invest more in accounts receivable and positively impact your bottom line. See how in the NWFA's newest Profit Improvement Report by
Dr. Albert Bates. The complete report is available online at
www.nwfa.org. Simply click on the "Services and Supplies" menu option and select the "Statistical Reports" link. To request a hardcopy of the report, contact the NWFA by phone at 800/422-4556 (U.S.), 800/848-8824 (Canada) or 636/519-9663 (local and international) or e-mail at
[email protected].
