The Call Is Out: Enter the 2008 Excellence Awards
It's time to prepare your entries for the 2008 ProSales Excellence Awards, the LBM industry's annual celebration of the best in showroom and facility design, marketing, and technology. Last year's group of winners was arguably our strongest ever. Can you match them?
Winners will get a feature article in ProSales, recognition at the 2009 International Builders' Show, and a $500 donation to the local or national charity of their choice.
You can find more details and entry instructions at prosalesonline.com. Or contact managing editor Evamarie Socha at [email protected] or 202.729.3682.
Door Hangers Group: Say No to Proposed Standard
The American Pre-Hung Door Association urges interested parties to call for the rejection of a proposed amendment to the International Code Council's rules on testing of side-hinged doors. The deadline for submission is June 9, APHDA Executive Director Georgia Smith says.
Amendment S141 to the code would require that each side-hinged door unit and combination be tested for safety as would each facility that hangs those doors.
"Small door hangers will not be able to afford to do the necessary testing and would be prevented from producing exterior door units," APHDA says. "In our opinion, this creates a restraint of trade condition." Interested? Visit www.aphda.org for the comment form and instructions.
–Craig Webb
The Home Depot Shuts the Door on 15 Stores
In a sign of the times and sagging home sales, The Home Depot, the world's largest home improvement retailer, revealed May 1 that it will close 15 stores.
The Atlanta-based retailer said in a statement that "underperforming" stores did not meet The Home Depot's "targeted returns" and represent less than 1% of its store portfolio.
The move impacts about 1,300 associates. Store managers and assistant managers will be offered other positions within the company, while associates will be placed comparable positions where they are available, the company said. The closings will result in a charge of approximately $186 million for The Home Depot, including inventory markdowns of $11 million and severance of $8 million.
The Home Depot reiterated its plans to open 55 stores in the current fiscal year and plans to grow its total square footage by 1.5% per year, beginning in 2009. However, the company no longer plans to open approximately 50 other stores, the company said. Additionally, the budget for new store spending has been reduced by $1 billion over the next three years.
Closing stores include: east Fort Wayne and Marion, Ind.; Frankfort, Ky.; Opelousas, La.; East Brunswick and Saddle Brook, N.J.; Rome, N.Y.; Bismarck, N.D.; Findlay and Lima, Ohio; Brattleboro, Vt.; along with locations in Beaver Dam, Fond du Lac and Northwest Milwaukee, Wis.
–Andy Carlo
In Brief
McCray Lumber Co. is purchasing Whelan's Lumber, a century-old dealership with a contractor yard and door plant in Topeka, Kan., and another contractor yard in Lawrence, Kan. The deal, signed in March, brings Overland Park, Kan.-based McCray to 13 facilities. ...Newport News, Va.-based Ferguson and Stock Building Supply distributed relief packages to victims of tornadoes and storms that hit southeastern Virginia in late April. Packages were delivered to the City of Suffolk for distribution in tornado-ravaged neighborhoods. The twister that struck the town caused more than $18 million in damages to residences and businesses. Among the kits' contents were 150 pairs of ProSelect leather gloves, 68 sheets of plywood, 40 ProSelect tarps, 30 Raptor hammers, 30 shovels and 10 boxes of 16D nails. ...A federal judge May 2 sentenced Richie Hansford Conner, owner of Shag's Lumber Yard in Edinburg, Va., to more than 10 years in prison for drug, money laundering, and tax evasion charges, the Daily News Record of Harrisonburg, Va., reported. Police say that Conner was running a lucrative drug distribution business. ...Grand Lumber Co. in West Suffield, Conn., got the OK from local officials to proceed with construction of its second retail lumber and hardware store. At issue: trees. Grand Lumber's contractor took down several trees that were to be left standing, as the original plan had said. The new plan calls for planting trees to replace those, as well as putting in a sidewalk.
Grand Lumber also apologized to the town and residents for the trees' demise, the Republican newspaper reported. ...BlueTarp Financial Inc. and Orgill Inc. announced April 30 a partnership to provide credit and financial services to more than 5,000 independent hardware and home improvement retailers.
People
Susan Fitzsimmons, a vice president at Snavely Forest Products in Pittsburgh, was elected 2008-09 chairwoman of the North American Wholesale Lumber Association. She is the first woman elected to the organization's top post. ...Hardy Hamann has joined Athol, Mass.-based toolmaker L.S. Starrett Co. in the newly created slot of vice president of marketing and business development. ...Ames True Temper, a manufacturer and marketer of nonpowered lawn and garden tools in Harrisburg, Pa., hired Larry Baab as its senior vice president of sales and marketing. Most recently, Baab held executive roles in marketing, national sales, and brand licensing for Igloo Products Corp. ...Moen Inc. of North Olmsted, Ohio, promoted Bryan Kanz to vice president of global supply chain for global operations. Most recently global operations controller, Kanz joined Moen in 1991. ...Toolmaker Lenox of East Longmeadow, Mass. has named Bill Burke as group president of tools and hardware. Previously, Burke was vice president and general manager of Black & Decker's product service division.
$200
The price a barrel of oil could reach within two years, analyst Goldman Sachs predicted May 6. As of press time, oil had hit a record high of $123 per barrel.
$25.5 Billion
U.S. construction and industrial equipment rental revenue in 2007. General tool rental accounts for $8.5 billion rental revenue that year.
1,239
Number of fatalities on the job in the construction industry in 2006, according to the report, "Death on the Job," released in April. Total fatalities on the job for the year in all industries: 5,840.
Spread the word!
Send your company's news, announcements, and events to Evamarie Socha, via e-mail[email protected] or fax 202.785.1974.
