August 19, 2009

Advertisement

Therma-Tru Doors: It pays to be energy efficient. Therma-Tru® Doors can help minimize your energy bills with the purchase of qualified entry and patio doors. And now, as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, homeowners are eligible to receive a tax credit equal to 30% of the product cost - up to $1,500 per household for all energy efficiency improvements combined - when they purchase and install qualified products now through 2010. Virtually all Therma-Tru doors qualify for the tax credit. Visit www.thermatru.com/taxcredit for more information.

Nearly half the dealers responding to a ProSales survey this month say their shop has recruited and/or hired this year a sales rep who had worked previously at another building material dealer. The survey results, released today, also show it’s a buyer’s market, as more than three-quarters of those dealers say they’ve been approached by a laid-off sales rep. There also appears to be a big difference of opinion over how much damage a departing sales rep can do. About 6% of the executives at LBM operations estimate a typical sales rep could take a quarter of their business with them (at least temporarily) on departure, while 20.7% believe the top rep could take a quarter of the business. But when sales reps and managers were asked how much they could take if they left, 42% figured they’d pluck away a quarter of their accounts.
Read More
Download Summary of Survey Results

ProSales celebrates its 20th birthday this month with a special issue highlighting the PS20: The Twenty People, Products, Trends and Technologies that we believe have had the greatest impact on the LBM business since 1989. Click here to get an electronic version of the entire magazine, or pick the Web version from this lineup:

Advertisement

AZEK® DECK NEW TERRA COLLECTION FEATURES RICH, EARTHY COLORS AZEK Building Products announces the AZEK Deck Terra Collection in two rich, earthy colors of Kona and Fawn, with the stain and scratch resistance AZEK Deck is known for. Kona is a rich chocolate brown shade resembling the gourmet Kona coffee bean. Fawn is a deep tan with warm golden-amber hues. They are available in 5 ½ inch boards in 12, 16 and 20 ft. lengths. www.azek.com 1-877-ASK-AZEK

In its second acquisition announcement this week and fourth this month, SRS Acquisition Corp. said it has signed a letter of intent and is in the final stages of due diligence to buy Oregon’s Roofline Supply & Delivery. In the past two weeks SRS has added River City Wholesale in the Louisville, Ky., market along with Shake & Shingle Co., in the Denver area, and Atlanta South Supply Inc., an independent residential and commercial roofing distributor in the Atlanta metro market.
Read More
ProSales’ Database of LBM Deals Since 2006

The Home Depot acknowledged yesterday that the sour economy has had a larger impact on its sales to pros than it has on sales to consumers. During the retail giant's conference call with analysts, Home Depot CEO and chairman Frank Blake noted that pros accounted for about 27% of the company's total sales in the second quarter of this year vs. 32% in the second quarter of 2008. That 24% year-over-year drop compares with a decline of just 3% in sales to consumers.
More

Nancy Lien Griffin had an opportunity last week that most lumberyard owners never get a chance to do: speak with the President of the United States. Griffin, the owner and president of Madison Lumber Company in Ennis, Mont., was called upon by President Barack Obama to ask the president a question during Obama’s Aug. 14 town hall visit to Belgrade, Mont.
More

Advertisement
	I DO BUSINESS WITH AGILITY As the building products industry leader for more than 32 years, DMSi backs its Agility software with unparalleled service for peak performance, ease-of-use, and ROI. Learn how. Click Now.

Keith Coleman, co-owner of New Jersey’s Hamilton Building Supply, spent some time this week with Remodeling, a sister publication to ProSales. During an extensive Q-and-A session, Coleman talked about serving remodelers (the major customer at Hamilton), surviving the recession and staying on the alert when distributors try to slip in lesser-quality products. It also turns out that being located near Princeton University is no protection against the housing downturn; Hamilton has even had to put limits on expenses like the coffee machine.
More

Build A House LLC, a Greenville, S.C.-based firm that bills itself as a one-stop remodeling and turnkey building supplier, has purchased from Stock Building Supply a commercial door operation in Greer, S.C., that Stock had closed earlier this summer while it was reorganizing under Chapter 11.
More

Several former leaders of Weyerhaeuser's Corp.'s former Trus Joist Commercial business have joined with Atlas Holdings LLC to re-acquire the business and rename it RedBuilt. Terms weren't disclosed. The transaction involves four manufacturing plants, 13 sales and engineering offices, and roughly 230 employees. Its headquarters will be in Boise, Idaho.
More

A holding company led by the former president of a big drywall supplier in the mid-Atlantic has acquired four building material companies located side-by-side in Boston.
More

• Those of you attending tomorrow’s Old Timers Luncheon at the Florida Building Material Association’s Gulf Atlantic Building Products Expo in Orlando will get to see Rodney Potter of ProBuild. He’s been working at the same location--but for five different owners--since 1955. He also is featured in the “My Yardstick” feature in this month’s ProSales.
• Tonya Watkins Farina has joined TW Perry as director of business development. Her resume includes eight years with AZEK Building Products and six years at Trex.
• Providing further evidence of an uneven recovery in housing, Hanley Wood Market Intelligence reports that June subdivision sales improved in some Eastern and California markets while others continued to struggle. More
• Housing starts of all types fell 1% in July from June to reach 581,000 and were 37.7% below the July 2008 rate, the government reported. Single-family starts rose 1.7% from June to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 490,000.
• Builder confidence in the market for newly built, single-family homes rose one point in August to its highest level in more than a year, according to the latest reading of the National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index. The index reached 18 this month.
• The corporation that just opened the $65 million, 202-room Hotel Monaco in Baltimore could see that property auctioned off next month unless it pays J.F. Johnson Lumber Co. the $184,000 it owes for doors, wood trim, and other materials, the Baltimore Sun reports. More

• Activant Solutions Inc. and Ace Hardware Corp. announced a three year agreement in which Ace will continue to endorse Activant as Ace's only recommended point-of-sale solution.
• Ply Gem Holdings’ net loss shrank by more than half in the second quarter to $8 million from $19.5 million in the year-earlier period on a 23.6% decline in net sales to $260.6 million from $341.3 million. More
• Ainsworth Lumber Co. reported that, thanks to a huge gain in foreign exchange rates related to the Vancouver-based company’s debt, it swung to a net profit of C$19.5 million (US$18 million at current exchange rates) in the second quarter from a year-earlier C$33.5 million (US$31 million) even though its operations swung to a loss. More
• C.H. Briggs Co. announced it has been awarded rights to distribute DuPont Corian solid surfaces and Zodiaq quartz surfaces, in regions previously operated by Carapace LLC.
• DECRA Roofing Systems Inc. release a new direct-to-deck stone coated steel roofing system, DECRA Shake XD.
• Kolbe introduced ThermaPlus LoE insulating glass, which it said qualifies for the federal income tax credit for energy efficient home upgrades.
• Johns Manville introduced JM Corbond III, a closed-cell spray foam insulation.
• The NAHB Research Center has give its National Green Building Certification to wood treated with Viance’s Ecolife Stabilized Weather-Resistant Wood preservative.
• L.J. Smith Inc. introduced wood spiral stairways to its range of offerings.

Do you have a question, a tip, or a sage piece of wisdom? Feel free to contact ProSales' editor, Craig Webb, at cwebb@hanleywood.com.

And don't forget you can find previous ProSales Business Updates online!