PrimeSource Buying Prudential

PrimeSource Building Products, Inc., Carrollton, Tx., agreed to acquire the assets of Prudential Metal Supply Corp.

Prudential, a building products packager and distributor with 1999 sales of $146 million, operates l0 distribution centers, including Houston, Tx.: Atlanta, Ga., and two each in North Carolina, Alabama and Florida.

PrimeSource, with 1999 sales of $741 million, operates three manufacturing plants, 16 packaging plants and 37 distribution centers. The fate of DCs in overlapping markets is undecided.

Both companies serve a similar customer base (lumberyards, home centers and specialty distributors) with similar product lines, such as roofing and builders hardware.

The deal is expected to close midmonth.

Depot Jettisons Whirlpool

Home Depot said it has stopped ordering appliances from Whirlpool Corp., at least for now.

Analysts said the retail giant was miffed by Whirlpool's inability to deliver products in a timely manner.

Last month. the Atlanta-based chain announced it would expand its appliance sales division, which, until then, had been only a sideline. In doing so, Depot named Whirlpool and General Electric Corp. as its two suppliers.

Allegedly, Whirlpool has been plagued recently by inventory problems and shipping delays, which prompted the cutoff. Although a Depot spokesman wouldn't reveal why Whirlpool was nixed, he didn't rule out the two resuming business one day. He also praised GE for filling is orders and said that Depot is looking at other potential appliance suppliers.

A Whirlpool spokesman wouldn't comment on the cutoff. but did confirm the two firms are still negotiating and that no final decision has been made.

Maytag Corp. is rumored to be one of the suppliers under consideration.

OSB Contracts Now Regional

The Chicago Mercantile Exchange has launched separate Oriented Strand Board futures and options contracts for Southeastern (Atlanta), Southwestern (Dallas), Western (Los Angeles), and North Central (Chicago) regions, since the products are generally produced and used within specific geographic areas.

In addition to the four delivery regions, new features of CME's contracts include mill and warehouse delivery as well as truck and rail delivery. Warehouse delivery permits wholesalers easier participation in the market from either the buy or sell side. Truck delivery gives buyers and sellers the use of the most cost-effective form of transportation. The new contracts replace mill- and rail-only delivered contracts.

The exchange, which has offered trading of futures and options on random length lumber since 1969, began trading OSB futures and options in 1996. Their OSB contracts are sized at 100,000 sq. ft., which is one boxcar or tbree truckloads. Contract months traded are January, March, May, July, September and November.

Cox Buys Crossarm Treater

Cox Industries, Orangeburg, S.C., has acquired North South Wood Preserving, North, S.C., the nation's leading supplier of southern yellow pine crossarms.

Cox will couple its Carolina Pole facility in Eutawville, S.C., and its Highway Timber Products division in Oak Ridge, Tn, with North South to form Cox Industries' Utility Division. The acquisition allows Cox to offer not only CCA treated products but also pentachlorophenol crossarms.

Former North South president Dewitt Livingston will serve as president of the facility, with Heyward Livingston as operations manager and Jane Livingston as office manager.

Plywood Plants Expanding

Columbia Forest Products is installing a state-of-the-art, 82,000-sq. ft. plywood production line in Trumann, Ar., doubling the facility's capacity and making it the largest three-ply plywood plant in the U.S.

The facility is one of three that Portland, Or.-based Columbia Forest Products will upgrade this year as part of a $25 million program to expand its hardwood plywood capacity.

The company also will install spreaders and presses at its Craigsville, W.V., poplar veneer facility to produce veneer core plywood panels and Forest Stewardship Council-certified, calibrated blanks. The new equipment and 46,000-sq. ft. expansion will allow the mill to saw, sand and patch panelscollectively a step in the manufacturing process that previously had been performed off site.

Additional lay-up and finishing equipment will also increase capacity at its Klamath Falls, Or., plant by 20V0.

Big W Selling Door Business

As part of its plan to focus on its core businesses, Weyerhaeuser Co. agreed to sell its door manufacturing division to merchant banking firm Saunders Karp & Megrue for an undisclosed cash amount.

In 1999, the Marshfield, Wi., plant made and sold 720.000 cutomized architectural doors. The deal is anticipated to close by early April.

Last year, Weyerhaeuser sold its composite products business and closed its chlor-alkali plant in Longview, Wa.

Builder's Supply To Rebulld

Jimmy and Teresa Jones, the new owners of Builder's Supply, Hopewell, Va., plan to renovate the 92-year-old firm, which resides in two blocks of buildings in the middle of town.

A developer who plans to continue his occupation, Jones purchased the financially-strapped business because he feared for the employees if the store was sold to out-of-state interests.

Although most of the employees remained from the former Hopewell Builder's Supply, the management team departed. To replace them, several new managers with building supplies backgrounds were hired, including general mgr. Steve Padden.

"I've been coming here since I was four years old," Jones said. "I think Hopewell needs a store like this." He said his involvement is mostly as an idea man and investor, while his wife is the office and credit manager.

The couple wants to close some of the alleys that run between the seven buildings that comprise the store and warehouses, citing safety concerns, and hope to renovate a vacant gas station to house various plumbing, hardware and construction merchandise.

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