Hardwood Floors E-News - 8/21/2006

U.S. District Court Judge Eduardo Robreno has confirmed Armstrong World Industries Inc.’s (Lancaster, Pa.) "Fourth Amended Plan of Reorganization, as Modified." The U.S. District Court still has to enter a formal confirmation order, after which the company plans to emerge from bankruptcy in the fourth quarter of 2006. Armstrong first declared bankruptcy in 2000.

Columbia Commercial Flooring (Danville, Va.), a division of Columbia Forest Products, has been selected as a vendor for StarNet Commercial Flooring Cooperative (Ridgefield, Conn.), which is comprised of locally owned, full-service commercial flooring contractors located throughout North America.

Mirage/Boa-Franc (Saint-Georges, Quebec) sponsored a community tree-planting day hosted by San Francisco-based Friends of the Urban Forest on July 29. Volunteers and local residents planted the 36 trees donated by Mirage in the Richmond District of San Francisco. In other company news, Mirage earned top ranking for quality in a national survey conducted by Floor Focus magazine.

Old Master Products Inc. (Van Nuys, Calif.), manufacturer of The Garrison Collection, has opened a new location at 7615 Othello Ave., Units J and K, San Diego, CA 92111. The phone number is 858/565-8886, and the fax number is 858/565-8801.

Grizzly Forest Products (Newberry, S.C.) has moved its sales office to 202 Pickens St., Joanna, SC 29351. The phone and fax numbers are 864/697-4316 and 864/697-4317, respectively. Grizzly Forest Products is also looking for distributors. For more information, contact Dave Stone at 864/697-4316 or 864/444-7609, or e-mail [email protected].

NRI Industries (Toronto) is partnering with Kinetics Noise Control (Dublin, Ohio) to manufacture sound-control membranes for hardwood floors under the brand names EcoSoundmat and EcoSoundmat High Bond. For more information, contact Stephen Murdoch at 905/682-7203 or at [email protected].

Merle B. Smith Co. Inc. (Burr Ridge, Ill.), in conjunction with Norton Abrasives (Sanborn, N.Y.), has selected Vlasici Flooring (Woodridge, Ill.) as the winner of the Red Heat Giveaway. Nick and Svetlana Vlasici were awarded a Weber grill valued at more than $800.

The flooring retailer co-op CCA Global Partners (St. Louis) will hold its Fourth Annual Charity Golf Tournament September 28 at the Marriot Evergreen Conference Resort in Stone Mountain, Ga. For more information, contact Paula Holt at 314/506-0041.

The 2006 Profitability Survey shows distributor profits at a five-year high, according to the National Association of Floor Covering Distributors (NAFCD), which conducts the survey every year. NAFCD members completed a confidential survey about their businesses and submitted it to the Profit Planning Group (Boulder, Colo.). The results of the survey showed typical distributor sales were approximately $37 million with a pretax profit of 2 percent. The high-profit firms had sales of around $43 million with a 4.2 percent pretax profit. For more information, contact the NAFCD Headquarters by mail at 401 N. Michigan Ave., Chicago, IL 60611-4267; by phone at 312/321-6836; by e-mail at [email protected]; or visit www.nafcd.org.

WoodEye North America Inc. (Suwanee, Ga.) has appointed Claus Staalner president.

Mohawk Industries (Dalton, Ga.) has named David Duncan vice president of marketing for Mohawk Residential. He is taking over for the retiring Ed Williams. Mohawk has also appointed Brad Matthaidess senior vice president, Mohawk Aligned and Builder Programs, a newly created position. Matthaidess is responsible for all Mohawk Aligned dealer programs as well as builder and multi-family sales.

Cikel Brasil Verde S/A (Curitiba Parana, Brazil) has added Joel Trippied and Roberto Nejm Jr. to its sales and marketing team. Trippied, based in Atlanta, will work in sales, focusing on the distribution network. Nejm Jr., based in Brazil, is marketing project developer and will develop product introductions, product promotions and other marketing programs for distributors.

Olson Floor Supply of Ohio (Middlefield, Ohio) has hired Ken Deckert as outside sales manager. Deckert brings more than 20 years’ flooring experience to the company. He can be contacted at 440/313-7150.

Sekulic International Trading Co. (Los Angeles) has hired Jean Savich as salesperson in charge of online orders.

The overall National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index (HMI) declined seven points from 39 in July to 32 in August. The other three indices also fell from July. The index gauging sales expectations for the next six months dropped six points to 40, the index measuring current sales of new single-family homes fell seven points to 36, and the index measuring traffic of prospective buyers fell six points to 21.

Total housing starts for July 2006 were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,452,000 units, according to the U.S. Commerce Department. This is 2.3 percent below the June 2006 figure of 1,486,000 units.

The NWFA will hold an Expert Installation School October 3-7 at its training facility in St. Louis. For more information, e-mail [email protected] or visit www.nwfa.org.

The JLC Live Residential Construction Show, which features a conference and expo, will be held September 12-15 at the Minneapolis Convention Center. For more information, visit www.jlclive.com.

Armstrong World Industries is seeking an experienced sales representative for Los Angeles and for Chicago. This position requires a bachelor’s degree or equivalent experience and preferably two years’ sales experience in the flooring industry. Applicants must have customer-service skills and experience in sales practices such as devising sales plans and strategies, demonstrating products, and quoting process and credit terms. For more information, visit www.armstrong.com.

Clarke American Sanders (Springdale, Ark.) is looking for a sander manager for its Southern California territory. This position requires direct sales experience, excellent presentation skills and the ability to travel 65 percent of the time. Résumés should be mailed to Clarke, Attn.: Human Resources-SM-WR, 2100 Hwy. 265 South, Springdale, AR 72764; faxed to 479/750-8236; or e-mailed to [email protected].

Clarke is also looking for a sander manager for Canada-primarily its Toronto territory. This position requires floor care knowledge in order to assist and support customers, the ability to build and grow business through the addition of new accounts, and the ability to travel 65 percent of the time. Résumés should be sent to Clarke, Attn.: Human Resources-SM-CAN; 2100 Hwy. 265 South, Springdale, AR 72764; faxed to 479/750-8236; or e-mailed to [email protected].

Olson Floor Supply Co. Inc. (Jamaica, N.Y.) is looking for inside salespeople for its New Jersey location. The position includes salary and benefits. Résumés should be faxed to 856/303-8878.

An undamaged New Orleans flooring plant is for sale. It includes two molders plus an end-matcher, chop saws, nesting stations and a full dust-collection system. All of the machines are in working order, available by themselves or as an ongoing business. The plant was designed to produce 5,000 to 8,000 square feet of specialty plank solid flooring per shift. For more information, contact Toto Robinson at 504/896-6114 or [email protected].

Hardwood Floors is looking for great company T-shirts for its December 2006/January 2007 dealer/contractor marketing contest. A professional branding expert will pick the best one, the winner will receive a Hardwood Floors T-shirt, and the winning T-shirt will appear in the magazine. The deadline for submitting T-shirts is Friday, September 15. If you are a hardwood flooring dealer or contractor and think you have a great company T-shirt, mail it to: Company T-shirts, Hardwood Floors, 4130 Lien Road, Madison, WI 53704.

In April this year, the NWFA’s membership reached a milestone by crossing the 3,800 mark. NWFA-member companies now span all 50 of the United States and 54 countries. You can receive recognition for helping the association grow. Members who recruit four new members in a given year (April to April) receive a Golden Mallet award. Additional awards are presented for recruiting two new members in subsequent years. For more information, 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].