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Stair Sales

(CotttittueLl lrotn page l2) tion live in single level homes. "Thus," he says, "there's little market for stairs."

Ralph Hochhalter, a manufacturer's rep in Utah and Idaho for Coffman Stair Parts, says that there is a big d-i-y market in his area, approximately 3090 of total sales. He conducts 30 or 4O installation clinics a year and follows through with personal visits to contractors and d-i-yers if they need it. He makes sure that the sales personnel in the stores that buy from him are well trained, too.

Hochhalter explains stairs are being used for both new construction and refurbishing. Oak is the favorite material. The size of the display a retailer keeps, he points out, depends upon the size of the store, but most retailers including all the Anderson Lumber Co. stores, Colonial Lumber and Cook Lumber Inc. have stair parts in stock.

Addison Corp., a wholesaler in Atlanta, Ga., does a lot of business in stair parts with eight branches in its 100 mile market radius. The do-ir yourselfer finds changing the hand rails, newels and balusters an easy and inexpensive way to redecorate, according to salesman Frank Lynch. Most of the retailers he deals with c:ury a lot of the basics including spindles and newels and do catalog orders for the fittings such as goosenecks. volutes and rosettes. Addison has five salesmen in the field helping their customers, which include West, Lowe's, Home Depot, Handy City, Homecrafters and Williams Brothers, with clinics and employee training.

Lowe's in High Point, N.C., has no d-i-y demand, according to Raymond Goodman, manager, who keeps no displays in his 7,200 sq. ft. store. He orders stair parts in job lots from his distributors as they are needed by his contractor customers.

Hechinger Co. stores also sell by catalog, ordering through their millwork distributor, according to Scott McCallum, commodities building material, non lumber, buyer. Mary Carpenter Ray, buyer for decorative building materials, buys some spindlesand such for the stores'd-i-y trade.

Stair components sell hit or miss at Friedman Brothers Hardware, Santa Rosa, Ca., says Tony Corsberg. One day it may be $2000 in sales and zero the next. He considers stair pafts a two stop purchase. "Customers se€ the displays in the store," he says, "think about them and come back to buy, usually to replace wrought iron railings or update an installed stair system.t'

His store maintains a stock display of about 16 ft. of parts for do-ityourself installation. With the help of manufacturer's reps Friedman Brothers stages clinics four to eight times a year.

Corsberg feels that adequate trained help with time available to help the customer is essential because "stair parts don't sell themselves." Another negative, as he sees it, is the amount of floor space required for a display.

No roundup on hardwood stair parts would be complete without mention of the custom built systems. Usually ordered directly by architects or builders they include the spirals, curved stairs, flying stairways, circular staircases and free standing staircases built to order, delivered to the site and installed with supervision provided by the manufacturer. Only the finest hardwoods are used in these.

A retailer considering adding stair parts to his inventory should consider several points. One, are there a lot of older two-level homes in his area? Second, does he have space available for a display? Third, does he have sufficient help with expertise and time to guide d-i-y customers? Fourth, does he want to devote time to clinics for both employees and customers? If the answers are favorable, there's business out there.

Kentucky Dealer

(Continued front page 15)

Maloney opened its own hardwood mill in the southern Indiana Knobs. (It is no longer operational.) They also expanded with a second yard four blocks from the original yard and leased a wholesale yard in cooperation with several competitors.

When the war ended, the company shifted gears and went after the house builders, according to Boland. They pioneered kiln dried lumber in the Louisville market, advertising it heavily. When the industry ultimately got around to following their lead, they had established the f,rrm as a quality leader and had built a reputation by selling #l yellow pine that was clearer than today's C and B or prime grade, Boland recalls.

When the second downtown yard was destroyed by fire in 1969, the operation was moved about 20 miles outside of central Louisville. This was an ideal location for the time, mere minutes from the housing tracts which they were supplying. When the housing developments were completed, the location remainedconvenient for the newly developing d-i-y market. Boland-Maloney built a modern showroom and store at the Collins Lane location and began to cater to the consumer and small remodeler.

Today,with both stores, they have a

50 mile market radius. The business mix has sha@ itself into @s/o remodeling, commercial and industrial, 3090 building contractors and l09o retail d-i-y customers. Five outside salesmen, newspaper, radio and tv advertising, promotions and in-store workshops are geared to reach all segments of their market. Eleven trucks cover the area with deliveries.

The stores stock a complete line of lumber including yellow pine, spruce, whitepine, redwood, hardwood, treated lumber and plywood. Their builders hardware and door and window lines are comprehensive. Custom millwork is done on the premises. Oak, poplar and maple are good sellers in mouldings and casings. Much of the inventory, including lumber purchased direct from the mills, arrives at the main store bY railroad, coming onto their private spur.

A payroll of $1,250,ffi covers Z yard workers, 15 offitce employees, 19 salesmen and two managers. The stores operate on a 2890 profit margin with a net return after taxes of 2Vo, according to controller Jack McQuade.

Capitalizing on the well known n:une, reputation for qualitY and business sawy, the company expects to survive the home centers war in Louisville as successfully as it did the Great Depression and more recent economic skirmishes.

Hardwood Tally

(Continued from page 10) customer you're entitled to have things make sense to you.

Ultimately the best way to avoid sharp practices is to own a tally stick and to tally every piece of hardwood you buy. A tally stick is a flexible ruler about 40" in length that will measure the board footage in a piece of lumber. They are available from a number of companies or through your hardwood dealer. A reputable dealer will welcome the chance to help you acquire one and will show you how to use it.

Hang your tally stick where every salesperson who calls can see it. A tally stick is a talisman that wards off the shady dealer.

One caution when you start to tally hardwood, the National Hardwood Lumber Association allows a standard deviation of 590. Don't expect your tally to exactly match the dealer's tally. But they should be close. If they aren't close, tell the dealer you either want him to accept your tally, or you want him to retally the load while you watch. If you feel you've been cheated, and you can't get reparation in any other way, contact the state agency responsible for weights and measures.

Southern Chains Move West

Southern based warehouse retail chains are looking to the northeast and west for expansion in the years ahead.

Builders Square, a division of Kmart, headquartered in San Antonio, Tx., projects nine more stores this year and 20 more in the next two years with emphasis on the California market.

Hechinger, Landover, Md., will add two more warehouse stores this year and nine in 1986. Upstate New York, Long Island, New York, Western Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware and South Carolina are potential sites.

The Home Depot, Atlanta, Ga., will concentrate on Detroit with some fill-ins in their existing markets in Atlanta, Florida, New Orleans, La., Houston and Dallas, Tx., Phoenix, Az., and Southern California. Thirteen stores are planned to open by year end with 20 more in 1986.

Homecrafters, Birmingham, Al.,

If you're tallying lumber that has been straightJined or surfaced on four sides, you'll have to make dlowances. The waste involved in milling can be surprisingly high. By regularly tallying the lumber you received and by comparing your results with the dealer's piece tally of the same lumber before milling, you should be able to determine whether you got all you bargained for.

I want to emphasize again that most hardwood dealers are honest. Many of them publish price lists which state that their prices are based upon net footage only. In recent years one distributor has even given away thousands of miniature tally sticks. Most hardwood dealers will welcome your questions and will encourage your desire to know you're getting a fair deal. The hardwood dealers I admire want an honest market place just as much as their customers do.

Always keep in mind that mistakes happen. Be willing to give a dealer the benefit of the doubt. From my own experience managing hardwood operations I know how easy it is to mistakenly leave a unit of lumber off a shipment, or even a few tiers off a unit. Ifyou've been shorted, give your dealer the chance to admit an honest mistake and make it right.

Yellow Poplar

(Continued from page 12) being closed-in. The yellow poplar lumber nailed easily and very few pieces split when nailed.

Two free publications on yellow poplar framing lumber are available for those interested in learning more about this product. One, "Yellow Poplar Framing Lumber" gives some general information about the lumber, its grades and uses. The other, "Grades, Design, Values, And Span Tables For Yellow Poplar Framing Lumber" is more technical and would be of interest to architects, designers, engineers and building code inspectors. A l2-minute, V2' V}JS videotape showing a house framed with yellow poplar dimension lumber is available on a loan basis.

Write to Extension Forest Resources, North Carolina State University, Box 8003, Raleigh, N. C. 27695-8@3 to request the publications.

Hardwood Convention

The International Hardwood Products Association (IHPA) will hold its 3fth annual international convention, March 3-7,1986, at the Waiohai Hotel on Kauai, Hawii.

will develop markets in Salt Lake City, Ut., and Denver, Co., adding two stores in the next few months and one in '86. Mr. How Warehouse, Margate, Fl., has scheduled seven more units for this year and 18 more for '86, moving into Virginia, Missouri, Colorado and Indiana.

Hardwood Floor Use Increases

Use of hardwood floors in new homes has increased from less than l9o to 590 in the past l0 years, according to Bill Smith, who represented his company, Charlotte Hardwood Center, Charlotte, N.C., at the Southern Ideal Home Show in Charlotte in September.

He sees the market in the next few years returning to the figures of 30 years ago when 7090 of the homes used hardwood floors. More and more hardwood floors are installed by d-i-yers, up to 6090 according to Smith.

The IHPA convention is held annually to report the association's activities and further the aims of the forest products industry.

The World of Wood Exhibition will be held in conjunction with the convention.

Pacific Rim Mill Study Tour

The Hardwood Plywood Manufactwers Association, Reston, Va., is continuing with plans for a mill study tour of Japan, Singapore and Indonesia despite cancellation of the 9th Asian Plywood Manufacturers Conference and Malaysia Wood Expo'85.

Sylvia McDonald, tour coordinator, reports the trip will include visits to three mills in the Tokyo area, coordinated through the Japan Plywood Manufacturers Association. In Singapore the group will tour an adhesive mill. Mills in Jakarta, Banjarmarsin, Balikpapan, Samarinda and Jogyakarta will be other stops.