Distributors tune up

in Nashville

T HE NATIONAL Building MaI terial Distributors Association closed the 1980s by looking into the 1990s during its best attended convention in more than a decade.

About 975 NBMDA members and guests converged at the Opryland Hotel, Nashville, Tn., to get "ln Tune with the Future," the theme of the 38th annual meeting.

The Oct. 28-31 convention featured 194 exhibit booths and the largest number of educational sessions NBMDA has ever offered. In "Getting Started with Bar Coding," consultant Richard Bushnell praised coding, while identifying its biggest hindrance as a lack of uniformity among manufacturers.

Keynote speaker Tommy Lasorda, manager of the Los Angeles

Story at a Glance

National Building Material Distributors Association's 38th annual meeting lures record crowd to Nashville, Tn. Ellinwood elected new president.

Dodgers, drew parallels between coaching a sports team and a business team. "A leader is someone who stands out in lront of his men, but not so far that he can't hear their footsteps," he said.

"Our responsibility is to make these people happy, glad to come to work," Lasorda added.

Marilyn LeMoine, American Plywood Association, encouraged cultivating industrial customers. "Diversify and look at some of the nonhousing markets," she urged.

"Effective Selling to the Remodeling Market" was addressed by

Peter Miller, Remodeling Magazine. He noted that the professional remodeler uses a warehouse home center only 5olo of the time, since "the perception is that they are not properly stocked to meet his needs."

Remodeling contractors base their buying decisions, in descending importance, on product quality, availability, service, appearance and price, said Miller.

Other seminars covered selling skills, hiring, drug abuse, arbitration contracts and government issues.

Steve Ellinwood, Building Material Distributors, Inc., Galt, Ca., was introduced as the association's new president, succeeding C. Keith Rust, Roland & Roland. Other officers for 1990: president-elect George Bryson, Aetna Plywood; vice president Gary McKillican, McKillican Hardwoods, Ltd., and treasurer A. Richard Kasper, Amerhart Ltd.

Rust, Thomas Seymour, John Ramsey, Jim Ben Edens, James Tainter, Ken Hendricks and Hugh Oliphant are new to the board of directors, joining James Daniels, William "Andy" Ellis, C. Dana Foster, Glenn Hart, Paul Hylbert and Joseph Theby, Jr. James Dunbar and E. Jay Schrock have retired from the board.

The next NBMDA convention and exhibit will be November l0-13, 1990, at the Washington Hilton & Towers, Washington, D.C.

Duckback Expands Business

Construction for a 100,000 square foot, $3.2 million manufacturing and distribution facility for Duckback Products Company, Inc., Chico, Ca., is near completion.

Duckback manufactures and markets a line of high performance exterior stains originally developed for the portable spa market and sold to original equipment manufacturers in 55 gallon drums. (Stain is a small but highly visible part of a portable spa, less than $5 on an item retailing for $3,000 to $6,000.) Duckback credits product performance and service for their 800/o share of this quality oriented market.

Duckback stains are distributed nationally to pool and spa retailers as well as selected paint stores and lumber yards. Duckback is now establishing a national network of quality lumber distributors. Recently appointed distributors include Capital Lumber, Denver, Co.; Wiegan Lumber, Washington D.C.; Ukiah Redwood Sales, Hi.; Selectwood, N.H., and Hudson Building Supply, Pa.

Duckback sales doubled last year and are expected to repeat that performance this year. Duckback attributes this explosive sales growth to increasing consumer demand for quality products. "Our goal is to increase market share by providing the finest quality products and service at competitive prices. We do what we say we're going to do," Fred Dannenfelser, v.p., sales and marketing, said.

Plastic Lumber?

A new line of "lumber" products manufactured from plastic materials is being offered by the Plastic Lumber Co.. Akron. Oh.

Materials in standard lumber sizes and wood-type products such as fence posts, decking, pallets, park benches, playground equipment, picnic tables and landscape materials are available.

Sacramento, Ca.

Ponderosa Pine, Sugar Pine White-Fir, Douglas Fir, Cedar. S-P-F

James A. Haas, gen. mgr.

Richard H. Mills

Sales Agents for:

Duramold Wood Products. El Paso, Tx.

W&W Moulding Co., Loomis, Ca.

P.O. Box 255546, Sacramento, Ca.95825 u.s. WATS (800)624-5319 cA. WATS (800)321-1278

(916)972-7282

FAX 916-972-7290

San Francisco, Ca.

O. Billings

Obttuarles

Wllllam W. "Blll" Logan Jr., retired chairman of Logan Lumber Co., Tampa, F'1., died Oct. 8, 1989, in Tampa after a short illness. lle was 75.

Born in Meridian, Ms., Mr. Logan worked his entire lumber career (from the early 1930s until his retirement in 1987) for the company his father founded.

He served on the board of direc-

Bar Code Guidellnes

The National F'orest Products Association (NFPA) has issued a series of recommended guidelines promoting the voluntary use of a Universal Product Code, or bar code, on wood products sold in building supply retail outlets.

"Our goal was to supply wood products manufacturers and distributors with detailed, industry-accepted guidelines so that they could answer the demands of home centers and single outlet retailers," says Dave Brewster, Georgia-Pacific Corp., who chaired the NFPA subcommittee which produced the report. "We have been hearing a growing demand lrom retailers for bar coded wood products and wanted to respond to that demand by early 1990. This document is a big first step."

NFPA's Electronic Information Standards subcommittee developed the voluntary guidelines as part of a year-long assessment project. They are in accordance with the UCC (Uniform Code Council) standards.

According to the report, the wood product industry's adoption of voluntary bar code standards will help manufacturers, distributors, and retailers share product-related information accurately and quickly, allowing producers to better meet consumer needs. From the retailer's perspective, the standards should help reduce inventory and recordkeeping costs, while improving product availability. As a result, the move to bar.coding should mean improvements in both cost control and customer service.

The report provides detailed format information and specifications in four major areas: piece code identifi- tors for the North American Wholesale Lumber Association and other trade associations. printer. They expect to be on line by Jan. I with one customer and be coding about 40th of the customer base within two years. llilly tlurch, v.p. of sales & marketing. is coordinating the project with customers; lllake Austin, v.p., l'inance. internal development.

Mr. Logan is survived by his widow, Sara, two sons, and llve grandchildren.

0scar Odell Chappelle Jr., 72, former owner of Chappelle Lumber Co.. El Paso, Tx., died Oct. 22, 1989, in Mountain llome, Ar.

Mr Chappelle is survived by his widow, Cynthia, one son, and one daughter.

Snakeg Allvel

Four slithery trespassers were discovered at Bowater Inc.'s Catawba, S.C., safety and training olllce, having sought weekend refuge from Hurricane Hugo.

cation, shipping unit identification, physical labeling and electronic data interchange (EDl). Those recommendations include: the use of UPC Version A for marking individual pieces (a process which provides both manufacturer and product information)l the use of UCC-128 codes to identify shipping units (an approach which provides either a serial number, fixed content, or variable content reference) I and the ANSI X 12 format for electronic data interchange (an approach which provides broad conventions for transmission of purchase orders, invoices, advance shipping notices, and other key business documents).

The guidelines also provide an overview of bar coding, symbol location guidelines, quality criteria, printing options (on-site or off-site), and a "how to get started" checklist complete with recommended association and supplier contacts. NFPA has also prepared a list of companies offering bar code equipment, systems and services as a separate information sheet for individual companies that need specific answers concerning physical labeling issues in their manufacturing and/or distribution environments.

Copies of the guidelines are available from NFPA.

First Bar Coded Moulding

As forecast, bar coded building products are beginning to make an appearance in the trade.

In the south, Brown Moulding Co., Montevallo, Al., is in the development stage of applying a UPC bar code to moulding. They also will apply stickers with a hand held

On the Monday after the hurricane, a | 5-inch long, non-poisonous bull snake fell from the ceiling. The next day, other snakes were found in the hallway outside a restroom, in the personnel department and in a supply closet.

"Our best guess is these were victims of Hugo," said Bowater's David Harris. "The way one guy put it, 'Even snakes have the good sense to come in out of the rain."'

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