milH HEM'FlR

This fine-textured, non-resinous timber has an excellent weight/strength ratio. lt ranks high in fiber stress (FB) and elasticity (E); and shows relatively small changes in dimension through absorption or drying. Hem-Fir is easy to work and shaPe.

Try our HEM-FlR Dimension!

p€r customer by asking, "How are you g,oing to use this material?"

And Cheaper Too

It's now less expensive for me to send a two-page FAX cross town than to mail a letter at 250 postage.

SELF.DEIJEATING

Companies who use those clever four-letter words in place of telephone numbers, ie: dial 555.TOOL are making it diflicult for their potential customers to reach them. lt's much easier to find the large numbers on the push buttons than to locate the tiny letters bunched in threes.

Coodbye Dabblers

Notice that as the warehouse operations proliferate, the "dabblers" are getting out of home center product categories. There are now fewer drug chains and mass merchandisers featuring home improvement products.

This Customer Buys Big

Check the Commerce Business Daily to see if the U.S. Government is a potential Iarge customer for you in your market. You may have to cut through some initial red tape, but it can put some big numbers on the bottom line.

Welsh Joins Amerlcan

Pacific

Welsh Forest Products, Inc., Memphis, Tn., has been merged into American Pacific Paneling, Inc., Holly Springs, Ms.

Both companies are manufacturers of prefinished paper overlay on hardwood wall panels. The combined operation will have four production lines, all in Holly Springs.

American Pacific is also a large importer of both raw and finished panels.

Lowe's Expands Two ln N.G.

Lowe's in Asheboro, N.C., has been expanded in a $500,000 improvement project, adding 5,000 sq. ft. to the showroom with a race track layout, two cashier stations, a garden center and a special contractor sales area with private entrance.

Thirteen new employees will be added with an extension of store hours: 8 a.m. to 8 p.fi., Mon. through Fri., 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., Sat., and 1 to 6 p.m., Sun., according to manager Randy Miles.

The Jacksonville, N.C., store has been enlarged to 23,040 sq. ft. with "rack and roll" display (see Building

Products Digest, Feb. p.2l). Contractors now have a 1,000 sq. ft. area with a special entrance and separate sales staff. A two acre commodity yard with eight checkout stations also is limited to contractors. Woody Brown heads the management. Staff includes Robert Jones. retail salesl Michael Whaley, contractor; Sandra Middlebrooks, offrce; Christine Pavy, credit. and Scott Hattsell. warehouse

New Temple-Eastex Mill ln La.

Temple-Eastex Inc. will locate its newest lumber converting facility six miles northeast of De Quincy, La. The new $28.7 million mill will convert small to medium size saw timber from company and private timberlands in the area. Wood chips generated by the operation will complement the company's linerboard mill in. Orange, Tx., according to Building Products Group vice president Harold C. Maxwell.

Hixson At Work After Flre

Despite a fire in their planer mill and shaving storage bin, Hixson

Lumber Sales didn't miss a beat in serving their customers from their Plumerville, Ar., headquarters. The firm also has a facility in Pine Bluff, Ar.

Damage from the Memorial Day fire was limited to the mill and storage bin thanks to a strong wind that blew flames away from lumber and other buildings. Some fearless forklift work by planer mill supervisor Steve Bostain allowed the planer to be removed from the hre, limiting damage.

Hixson was fully back on line before existing stocks were depleted. And in the "can do" tradition of the firm, they even loaded seven trucks while the fire engines were still mopping up the blaze.

Literature Helps Cedar Sales

Colorful literature that can spur new uses and demand for western red cedar lumber products is available for dealers and distributors to pass along to customers.

Full-color brochures packed with ideas, as well as more-practical howto pieces, are included in the collection offered by the Western Red Cedar Lumber Association.