Issue Date:12/12/2005
Hardwood Floors E-News Monday, December 12, 2005 Issue 278 Next issue published December 27, 2005 Deadline for items: December 20, 2005 Send news to [email protected]
Manufacturer News
BonaKemi USA (Aurora, Colo.) plans to build a waterborne hardwood floor finish manufacturing facility located in the Southeast United States and expects the facility to be fully operational by December 2006. It will also enable Bona to provide UV coatings for North American manufacturers of prefinished wood flooring.
Columbia Flooring (Danville, Va.) recently held a convention for European and Asian distributors of its Malaysian-manufactured engineered hardwood product line at the Berry Hill Plantation Resort in South Boston, Va. The convention introduced Malaysia Wood Industries (Sungai Petani, Malaysia) to Columbia's domestic operation.
Norton Abrasives (Sanborn, N.Y.) and Floor Style Products Inc. (Hastings, Mich.) have announced the winners of the 2005 Norton Abrasives/Floor Style Products Giveaway. Todd Conti of Oak Floors (Trenton, Mich.) won the first prize certificate valued at $1,500. The second prize certificate valued at $750 went to Mark Lewis of Pro-Line Flooring (Reno, Nev.). Third place went to Scott Bellows of Natural Reflections (Edmore, Mich.). He will receive a certificate valued at $250. All three winners can choose their own prizes from a catalog featuring items such as Callaway golf clubs, flat screen TVs, video equipment and digital cameras. Other winners included Ron Vanderploeg of Vanderploeg Flooring (Cable, Wis.) and Chris Carr of Floors Inc. (Woodstock Ill.). They each received a gift package from Floor Style.
Owens Flooring Company (Shawano, Wis.) is having an "Owens Flooring Company Photo Contest." The company invites flooring professionals to submit a photo of an installed Owens Plankfloor to win a $200 credit toward their next Plankfloor purchase if Owens selects the photo for its Web site. If the photo is chosen for the brochure, the company will arrange a professional photo shoot, and the contestant will have a chance to win a trip to Surfaces 2006 for two, including airfare and hotel. Both residential and commercial photos qualify. For more information, contact Laura at 715/524-6047. Photos should be sent by e-mail to [email protected].
Distributor News
Hanlite Bamboo Enterprises (Denver) has started producing its own brand of Strand Woven Bamboo Flooring in China. Hanlite Bamboo is looking for distributors in different U.S. regions and is accepting orders for container load purchase or individual job-site requirements. For more information, call 303/428-8889, or e-mail
[email protected] or
[email protected].
Pekin Hardwood Distributors (Pekin, Ill.) has added the Teal Flooring line to the exotic prefinished hardwood floors it distributes throughout the Midwest. Including this line, Pekin now offers 11 3/4-inch solid prefinished exotics. For more information, contact Steve Butler, general sales manager, at 888/649-9663.
Importer/Exporter
Ochoco International LLC (Bellevue, Wash.) has trademarked its Southern Hemisphere Collection. The company will use this brand name in all marketing and promotion communications for unfinished and prefinished solids, as well as Ochoco's new line of engineered products. For more information, contact
Sean Stewart at 425/614-4600, ext. 206.
Association News
The
Timber Flooring Association of Australia (TFAA) and the
National Wood Flooring Association of Australia (NWFAA) will merge to form a single identity titled the
National Timber Flooring Association of Australia (NTFAA), which reflects an agreement between the two associations to create a single voice for the industry. At a meeting to be held in Sydney in late January 2006, the two associations will officially merge. Ten new members -- five members from each of the former organizations -- will be elected as the board of directors. While the NTFAA will retain the TFAA's strategic business plan, rules and incorporation, the new committee plans to renegotiate its agreement with the NWFA-U.S., as well as upgrade and rename the NWFAA's Web site.
People News
The
NWFA has added
Connie Bodi as convention manager. Bodi has more than 17 years' experience in event and trade show planning and is both a certified meeting professional and a certified hospitality sales professional. She has been a member of the American Society of Association Executives, the Missouri Society of Association Executives and the Society of Government Meeting Professionals. Bodi will coordinate all aspects of the NWFA's Annual Convention.
Betco Corporation (Toledo, Ohio) has named John Henson vice president of marketing. He will be responsible for developing and implementing a marketing plan for the Betco Jan-San channel, the Basic Coatings wood floor distribution channel and Betco's corporate accounts department. Henson has worked at Betco for the past three months as a consultant.
Floor Style South (Dania Beach, Fla.) has promoted Chris Chamblin to branch manager. Chamblin has been with Floor Style for several years and has been the assistant branch manager in Dania Beach since it opened in January of 2005. Chamblin has worked in the hardwood flooring industry for nearly 25 years. He can be reached at 888/767-8953.
Mullican Flooring (Johnson City, Tenn.) has named Dave Forinash director of accounting systems at its headquarters in Johnson City. Forinash has 17 years of financial operations experience in the hardwood flooring industry. In his new position, he will evaluate Mullican's Enterprise Resource Planning system and perform financial analysis. Also, Mullican has added Kim Keyes to its customer service staff at its headquarters. Keyes has 18 years of customer service experience in the hardwood flooring industry. She will manage sales accounts in different territories and ensure that orders are shipped in a timely manner.
Trout River Lumber LLC (Crewe, Va.) has promoted Dale Hudson to general manager of its Crewe pine flooring mill. He has been with the company since its founding in 1998. Hudson can be reached by e-mail at [email protected]. Chris Twiford, also a long-time Trout River employee, has been promoted to customer service representative. He can be reached by phone at 434/645-2600 or by e-mail at [email protected].
By the Numbers
Sales of new single-family homes increased 13 percent to a record-setting seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.424 million units in October 2005, according to the
U.S. Commerce Department. The October sales pace was 9 percent above the same month one year ago. The inventory of new homes for sale was 496,000 at the end of October, a 4.3 months' supply at the current sales pace.
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
National Green Building Conference, sponsored by the
National Association of Home Builders (NAHB), will be held March 12-14, 2006, in Albuquerque, N.M. This conference gives NAHB members a look at new products and educational opportunities for building homes with a focus on preserving the environment. The green building module for the Certified Graduate Builder designation will include two days of in-depth discussions of strategies for incorporating affordable green building principles into homes that provide buyers with lower energy and maintenance costs, excellent indoor air quality and long-term value. For more information, e-mail
[email protected].
Job Watch
Junckers Hardwood Inc. (Anaheim, Calif.) is looking for a detail-minded candidate with a strong understanding of the technical aspects of hardwood flooring to be a hardwood flooring technical services manager. Responsibilities include telephone technical support and the ability to conduct thorough job-site inspections. Candidates must be confident speaking in front of large groups. Additional responsibilities include report and claim generation as well as general technical administration duties. Strong communication skills, both written and verbal, and computer (MSOffice) knowledge is required. The company offers a competitive salary and benefits package, including 401(k), paid medical, vacation, sick days and holidays. This position requires traveling, and no relocation benefits are available. Résumés should be sent by e-mail to
[email protected] or by fax to 714/777-6436.
Show us Your Floors!
Do you have great before-and-after photos of a floor you have done? Hardwood Floors would like to show such floors in future issues of the magazine. Send us prints or high-resolution digital images (300 dpi or higher) of the floor, along with a few sentences describing the type of flooring it is, the products used and how you remodeled or restored the floor. (The "before" floor could be wood or any other type of flooring.) We'll send you a Hardwood Floors T-shirt if we publish it in the magazine. Send photos and descriptions to Editor
Kim Wahlgren at
[email protected] or 4130 Lien Road, Madison WI 53704.
Resource Book Corrections
The "Lines Carried" for distributor
Cronin Company (Portland, Ore.) should have included: 3M, BonaKemi, Bostik, Buchanan, Century Flooring, ChemRex, ClassicAire, Dansk, Daysprings, Eko Wood, Graf Bros., Lauzon, Memphis Hardwood, Millrun Hardwood, Oshkosh Designs, Pinnacle Interior Elements, Pollmeier, Powernail, Timbermate and Trademark International.
EZ Tread (New Castle, Del.) should have been listed as a manufacturer, not a dealer/contractor. The address is 34 Blevins Drive, Suite 1, New Castle, DE 19720, the phone is 302/328-9444, the fax is 302/328-9445, and the Web site is www.eztread.com. EZ Tread produces unfinished and prefinished stair risers, stair treads and trim/moldings.
The phone number listed throughout Section 2: Who Makes What? for A to Z Exotic Hardwoods LLC (Philadelphia) should have been 215/432-5453.
The correct Web site for Kennebec Lumber Co. (Solon, Maine) is www.mainetraditionshardwoodflooring.com.
NWFA Member Services
Mark your calendar now to attend the largest convention anywhere dedicated exclusively to the wood flooring industry. The NWFA 2006 Convention will be held April 26-29, 2006, at the Baltimore Convention Center. This year's event will feature more than 600 exhibit booths and nearly two dozen educational sessions highlighting the industry.
Cal Ripken Jr. will be the keynote speaker. For more information, visit
www.nwfa.org and click on the "Convention and Expo" link or contact the NWFA by phone at 800/422-4556 (U.S.), 800/848-8824 (Canada) or 636/519-9663 (local and international), or by e-mail at
[email protected].