January 27, 2010

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	The 2009 ProSales Dealer of the Year Senior Editor, Andy Carlo, meets with Myron Andersen who was named the 2009 ProSales Dealer of the Year. Click here to watch.

BMC Select Execs Tout Continuity, Focus Post-Chapter 11

The CEO and president/COO of BMC Select told ProSales their newly named, newly reorganized company is a smaller and more focused version of its predecessor Building Materials Holding Corp. (BMHC), but essentially a continuation of the building materials dealer it was before it entered Chapter 11. "The footprint is smaller and we've gone back to our core: distribution, trusses, wall panels, millwork, targeted construction services," said CEO Paul Street, who along with president/COO Stan Wilson spoke to ProSales during the International Builders' Show in Las Vegas. It no longer will provide such other homebuilding services as doing plumbing or electrical work, he said.
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11 Housing Markets Will Lead the U.S., Dealers at ProSales Roundtable Told

Eleven metro areas will lead what will be a generally tepid year for new-home construction, while remodeling activity will slow through this winter before rebounding in 2011, an executive for Hanley Wood Market Intelligence (HWMI) forecast. Jonathan Smoke, a HWMI senior vice president, presented his outlook to executives from several large building material dealers who gathered last week for a ProSales roundtable during the International Builders' Show in Las Vegas. HWMI and ProSales share the same corporate parent.
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US LBM Closes Purchase of Universal Supply from Stock, Reveals Details of Deal

US LBM Holdings revealed details regarding the acquisition of Universal Supply Co., Stock Building Supply's former New Jersey operations, by it, by US LBM's parent, BlackEagle Partners LLC, and by the family that originally owned Universal. The acquisition is in partnership with Jeff Umosella. The Umosella family owned Universal before selling it to Stock in 2006.
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ProSales’ Deals Database

ProSales and Rader Solutions Want Your Opinions on Lumberyard IT Systems

ProSales and Rader Solutions, the company run by “Rader’s Edge” columnist Chris Rader, have launched a new online survey to get a sense of how your company feels about the software systems you’re using today. What works well? What frustrates you? Please tell us—and please forward this to your company’s IT expert so we can get the best information possible. All participants who provide contact information will get the invaluable written comments AND become eligible to win a $100 gift card. We’ll take responses until Feb. 9.
Take the IT Survey

Rader's Edge: How a Pink Unicorn Can Help You Profit

Chris Rader, author of ProSalesOnline.com’s “Rader’s Edge” management advice column, found that sometimes your best management ideas can come from traveling to the mall with a 6-year-old. Putting together a pink unicorn with his daughter, he found, can teach you about coupon marketing, consumer preferences, product shrinkage, employee attitudes, store layouts, upselling, and CRM systems. Oh yes—and how to make a customer smile.
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84 Lumber Launches Remodeler Rewards Program; Shuts Tennessee Store

84 Lumber has started a new rewards program geared toward remodelers and designed to capture new customers. In recent months the program was tested at two 84 Lumber locations in the Albany, N.Y., region. Now the program is being utilized at 84 Lumber's three stores on Long Island. In other news involving 84, the company confirmed to a Tennessee newspaper that it closed its store in Franklin, just outside Nashville. It still has two other stores serving the Volunteer State’s capital city.
More on Remodeler Rewards
Tennessee Store Closes
ProSales Database of Facility Closures

Wolf Expands into the Carolinas

Wolf, the distributor specializing in kitchen cabinets, has expanded its service into North and South Carolina. On Jan. 18 the company began filling orders from a cross-dock facility in Lexington, N.C. The York, Pa.-based company is also a major distributor of composite and PVC decking, along with railing, trim and other LBM products.
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Builders FirstSource Completes $180.1 Million Notes Exchange

Builders FirstSource has wrapped up its common stock rights offering and debt exchange for its outstanding Second Priority Senior Secured Floating Rate Notes due 2012. The exchange raised $180.1 million of new equity capital in the rights offering, which provided stockholders the opportunity to purchase common stock at a price of $3.50 per share.
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News From IBS: Shrinking Home Sizes, Retrofits, Boomer/Millennial Attributes, Interesting Products

ProSales was part of a platoon of reporters from our parent company that covered the National Association of Home Builders’ International Builders’ Show in Las Vegas last week.
• Three sets of product picks covering several dozen of the best finds.
Day 1, Day 2, and Day 3.
• This year’s IBS had smaller crowds—50,000 to 55,000 attendees—but markedly more optimism than in recent years. Story
• Average single family home sizes declined from 2,520 square feet in 2008 to 2,480 square feet in 2009, breaking nearly 30 years of uninterrupted growth. And the correction is likely to continue well into 2010, NAHB said. Story
• Energy efficiency retrofits, like installing programmable thermostats, beefing up insulation, and sealing ducts, are keys to up selling customers on other remodeling projects in this depressed housing market. Story
• When it comes to future housing needs, differences between Baby Boomers who have dominated American culture for 40 years and the younger Millennials who will dominate for the next 40 might not be as wide as is generally thought. Story

Judge Appoints Credit Receiver for North Pacific Group

The North Pacific Group Inc., one of America's largest distributors of building and agricultural products, has been ordered to be taken over by a court-appointed receiver, according to a recent newspaper report. NorPac a consortium of lenders, including Wells Fargo Capital Finance Inc.
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Atrium Files for Ch. 11 as Part of Restructuring Plan

Atrium Cos., the Dallas-based firm that bills itself as North America's biggest manufacturer of residential vinyl and aluminum windows and patio doors, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection from creditors as part of a restructuring agreement with more than two-thirds of its secured lenders.
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WebbThreads

I saw an unusual sight recently at Schoeneman’s Building Materials Center in Sioux Falls, S.D.: Inside sales employees wearing ties. For example, the photo at right shows Jim Pedersen as he cuts a key. Owner Al Schoeneman (who greeted me wearing a tie) says he requires ties on inside sales people because it shows the workers are professionals. Does your store also require ties for inside staff? Did you previously, but don’t now? Tell me.
• Taylor Bros. Lumber reopened in Lynchburg, Va., following its acquisition by The Lester Group of Martinsville, Va. Lester bought Taylor Bros. from Roper Bros. Lumber of Petersburg, Va., which filed for bankruptcy on Dec. 16 and closed all its stores. Story
• Two Parr Lumber employees, including the woman most responsible for winning a ProSales Excellence Award and an Honorable Mention last December, have left Parr to form a new company called Wheelhouse 20/20. Former Parr marketing director Jennifer Swick and regional sales manager Scott Ericson will be partners in the new firm, which will specialize in integrated sales and marketing.
• Valley Lumber, Grand Junction, Colo., closed earlier this month. Story. Meanwhile, the owners of Garfield Lumber, St. Joseph, Mo., plan to begin selling their store’s inventory this week in preparation for closing the dealership and retiring. Story
• What were two of the most notable changes seen at the International Builders’ Show this year? It was Bill Myrick of ProBuild and Harold Baalman of B&B Lumber. Both were considerably slimmer than they were last year. Myrick joked that it’s easy to be inspired to lose weight when your boss is older than you are but nevertheless is trimmer and more active.
• Sales of new single-family homes fell 7.6% in December from November and declined 8.6% from December 2008 to reach an annual rate of 342,000, the Census Bureau said today. For the full year 2009, new home sales fell 22.9% from 2008. Announcement
• Homeowner improvement spending is likely to reach a cyclical bottom in the current quarter and steadily increase through 2010 according to the Leading Indicator of Remodeling Activity (LIRA), released recently by the Remodeling Futures Program at the Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University. News release

• Home Depot plans to eliminate three pilot stores, lay off 1,000 workers. Story

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!