January 20, 2010

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ProBuild: 2009 Revenue Beat Expectations; Stock: We're Looking at New Markets

The CEO of ProBuild said yesterday his firm finished 2009 with $3.2 billion in revenue, about $200 million above earlier expectations. Meanwhile, the president and CEO of Stock Building Supply said his operation, which emerged just half a year ago from Chapter 11 reorganization, is looking to make acquisitions and enter new markets to expand its $1 billion revenue base. Both spoke to ProSales in separate interviews during the International Builders’ Show in Las Vegas.
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NAHB Forecasts 754K Housing Starts by 4Q10, 1.22M by 4Q11

The pace of housing starts will speed up this spring, slow and perhaps reverse course at mid-year, and then re-accelerate next winter and into 2011, the National Association of Home Builders' chief economist forecast yesterday.
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National Home Centers Hosting 'Store Closing Sale' at 3 Stores

National Home Centers, the Springdale, Ark., dealer that entered into Chapter 11 reorganization last December, has contracted a consulting firm to help conduct a "store closing sale" at three of its locations. Following the sales and store closings, National Home Centers will operate five locations compared to the nine it operated as of June 2009.
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NLBMDA, Other Groups Decry Small-Biz Health Care Provision

The National Lumber and Building Material Dealers Association (NLBMDA) joined with more than two dozen other housing and business groups in urging President Barack Obama to work to remove a provision in the Senate health care bill that excludes most of the construction industry from language exempting small business from a mandate requiring they provide health insurance for their workers.
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Miami Dealer Helps in Haitian Relief Efforts

A Miami building material dealer has found a special way to contribute to the massive relief effort for Haiti's earthquake victims: It's providing pallets and shrink wrap, plus materials it normally stocks for hurricane preparedness, for the containers of goods that south Florida citizens are donating. We also hear that Stock Building Supply is matching employees’ donations to relief groups. Is your building material dealer doing anything? Tell me.
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IBS New Products Roundup

As usual, manufacturers are using this week’s International Builders’ Show as a venue to introduce new products. Here’s a look at some of the initial announcements. More reports will come next week:

• CertainTeed: Its two key new products are EnerGen, a photovoltaic roofing panel for residential applications, and Sustainable Insulation, which meets California Indoor Air Quality Requirements and uses recycled materials in what CertainTeed calls a “low impact manufacturing process.”
• Dow Solar Solutions touted its Powerhouse solar shingle installs, which it says should be widely available in 2011.
• Owens Corning launched a Designer Colors collection in its Duration Series—“vibrant, unique color combinations that help homeowners and building owners make a colorful statement.”
• Laticrete introduced Laticrete 4-XLT, an adhesive mortar designed for installations of larger format, extra heavy tile and stone surfaces on walls. It also brought to market its SpectraLOCK 2000 IG, a new group that the company said has enhanced resistance to chemicals, staining, and high temperatures.
• Makita U.S.A. released its new 12-inch Dual Slide Compound Miter Saw with Laser, model LS1216L.
• GAF Materials introduced the Cobra FasciaFlow intake vent. It combines the form of a residential fascia board with the function of an intake vent, thus helping improve an attic ventilation system’s efficiency.
• Typar rolled out Surround SR Underlayment to protect building materials from inclement weather during construction and then acts as a secondary barrier after shingles are installed. Typar also introduced Matrix 3-D Geotextiles, which it touts as an improvement on traditional sediment control systems at construction sites.
• United Plastics Corp. launched ProFekt, which it described as “a recyclable, realistic-wood product designed to preserve wooden deck and patio surfaces
• Advanced Environmental Recycling Technologies (AERT) allied with PacTrim to introduce MoistureShield trim and moulding products.
• YKK AP America launched its Precedence vinyl replacement windows. “Precedence replacement windows are developed to be architecturally-correct–mimicking the look and styling of wood windows–without sacrificing the performance and low maintenance of a modern-day vinyl window,” the company said.

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84 Lumber Re-Shuffles Atlantic Locations

84 Lumber has consolidated operations in two markets, while re-opening a store in the Lynchburg, Va. Market as part of its annual review of locations, the company said. 84 recently closed stores in High Point, N.C., and Smithtown, Long Island, in New York. However, the High Point market will continue to be partially served by a re-opened location in Lynchburg, Va. Another 84 closing took place in McDonough, Ga.
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• Stock Building Supply, working with the Kelly MarCom marketing agency, has created a new-look website at www.stockbuildingsupply.com.
• Ohio’s Emerson Lumber closed is doors late last year and another Buckeye State firm, Dealers Lumber, is in the process of shutting down.
• Rodney Potter, the ProBuild legend who has worked at the same Bradenton, Fla., location for the past 55 years and was featured in ProSales last August (story) received the Manatee County Distinguished Citizen Award.
• Demand for extruded plastics used in America’s construction markets will rise 3.4% per year to 13.5 billion pounds in 2013, the Freedonia Group forecast. The prediction assumes a rebound in the housing market, which is a major user of extruded plastic for products such as siding and pipe. The construction market accounts for nearly 40% of all extruded plastics demand.
• Privately-owned housing units authorized by building permits in December 2009 were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 653,000, nearly 11% above the revised rate November 2009 rate of 589,000 and 15.8% above the December 2008 estimate of 564,000, according to a report by the U.S. Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Single-family authorizations in December were at a rate of 508,000, which is 8.3% above the revised November figure of 469,000.

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!