OPERANNG OPPORTUNITIES

WALLY LYNCH Paid Associates PO. Box 741623 Dallas, Tx.75243

UH,,lgen and building material

IL dealers, home centers and hardware stores have for some time been selling furniture items, lighting fixtures and lamps, appliances and floor coverings. These products, along with decorative accessories and draperies, are the core lines of the retail membership of the National Home Furnishings Association. Last month the Dallas Winter Home Furnishings Market was held and to keep current on this part of our business I attended it.

There are two such shows each Year in a dozen different cities at which the national and affiliated associations participate. The Dallas market, one of the larger ones, normally has an attendance registration of dealers, manufacturers and reps of about 15,000. There is no registration fee. The meeting is scheduled for five days, but the activities were primarily clustered during the weekend.

What our industry sells is in the minority in relationship to the total product mix that was presented. The home furnishing industry is as fragmented as ours, but, according to the almanac and the Statisticat Abstract, they do a good deal more business than we do with about half the stores.

What blew my mind was the emphasis on education. In a tightty packed two days there were 28 seminars and workshops. Of these, l6 were free. The other 12 were available in a one daY package that included breakfast and lunch for $25. Here are descriptions ol some of the freebies:

How to make your advertising 95olr effective; Learn what successful retailers already know.

R.O.C. return on customer: The best salesperson in any company is the one who has the greatest return on each customer they wait on, not necessarily the one with the highest sales volume. The only accurate measurement of individual sales productivity is R.O.C. (return on customer).

The hottest new styles and themes: How to buy and display them: Making the most of today's newest themes and styles in your store. A visual look at what they can do for you.

There's no such thing as a browser: Increase store profits and customer satislaction with add on accessory sales. Learn how to capitalize on this high margin area.

The dynamic duo of radio and print: How to combine radio and print to make your advertising more effective, find out how to use the two mediums to build a winning combination.

How to avoid stagnation in your business: Recognizing the symptoms of stagnation before they seriously affect your business is the surest way to avoid the problem. How to spot early signs of stagnation and what to do to correct lt. lmprove advertising results by 50011 with a layered play: A how to approach to creating an advertising Plan.

How to increase your multiple sales and double your average sales: How to increase the productivity of your sales staff and improve store productivity.

How to apply credit insurance to your credit receivables: A how to discussion of credit insurance.

Hiring a sales staff that closes 6 out ol l0: How to develop a sales team which beats the industry standard.

Smart warehousing: Minimizing costs and improving qualitY: ExPlore advanced technology currently available to drastically reduce operating costs in new or existing warehouse facilities.

Any retailer could learn something just from reading the description of the programs, let alone attending them. Business wasn't the only thing happening' but it sure dominated. Keynote speakers were knowledgeable home furnishings people. The whole atmosphere was how can we help you to do it better. Some 15,000 people thought it worthwhile. There must have been a reason.

Cost Of Losing Business

The cost of losing dissatisfied customers can add up quickly since unhappy shoppers can steer away other business. While losing one customer a Year who spends $5 a week amounts to $260 annually, losing such a customer each day results in an annual drop in sales of $65,000. If the customers each spent $50 weekly, the annual loss is $650,000; if they spent $500 per week, the drain is $6.5 million a year.

G-P/Nekoosa Fight Gontinues

Georgia-Pacific Corp. is continuing its legal battle to acquire Great Northern Nekoosa Corp. although Great Northern's poison pill antitakeover defense was upheld by a U.S. District judge in Maine.

Analysts and arbitragers predict that G-P has the upper hand in the $3.47 billion tender offer. Continued legal maneuverings, they say, may only delay what is inevitable, the sale of Great Northern Nekoosa to the highest bidder. G-P says that more than 750/o of Nekoosa's shares have been tendered in their $63 a share offer.

G-P is soliciting proxies for the March 2 meeting of Nekoosa shareholders in an attempt to oust board members. A second shareholder meeting March 20 will consider invalidating the poison pill. GeorgiaPacific also may appeal the latest decision on the pill.

Nekoosa is hoping for the success of a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court in Connecticut arguing that a takeover would violate antitrust laws.

Major PPI Realignment Underway

Plywood Panels Inc. (PPI) is realigning operations to complete the integration of Davidson-PWP, Inc.. which it acquired in 1988.

PPI's New Orleans manufacturing plant will close over the next three months, consolidating operations at a larger facility in Norfolk, Va. Headquarters will remain in New Orleans, along with regional sales and import operations. and warehousing.

Manufacturing of wood-based products will be transferred from PPI's facility in Tualatin, Or., to its plant in Chino, Ca., with the Tualatin plant concentrating on gypsum products. Specialized manufacturing in City of Industry, Ca., will continue. Warehouse/distribution facilities will be in Norfolk, New Orleans and Sacramento, Ca.

Last November, Kenneth E.

Glass was appointed president and ceo succeeding L. Russell Haan who remains a member of the board of directors.

Since then a number of senior management appointments have been made to integrate production and marketing operations company wide: Robert Trojan, chief operating officer, New Orleans; Dietrich L. Petersen, executive vice presidentoperations, Chino; James N. Haynie, executive vice president-marketing and sales, Norfolk; Don MacMaster, Jr., vice president-imports, New Orleans; Robert Taylor, chief financial officer, New Orleans.

Dick Olano, vice president-distributor sales, New Orleans; Vic Johnson, vice president-national accounts, Norfolk; Mike Swanson, vice president-mobile homes and recreational vehicles, Chino.

Commenting on the realignment actions, Trojan said they are "part of a new strategic plan designed to make PPI even stronger and to position the company for long-term profitability. The business objective for all of these actions is to streamline operations so that we can serve our customers even more effectively."

Sequoia & Grip-Rite Merge Sequoia Supply and GriP-Rite Croup have merged in a $124 million transaction to form PrimeSource, Inc., the largest independent distributor of building materials in the U.S.

Marvin E. Miller, chairman of Grip-Rite, White Plains, N.Y., will be chairman/ceo of the new company. Paul W. Hylbert, president, Sequoia Supply, Irvine, Ca., will be president/ceo.

Miller Supply, MetroPolitan Wholesale Supply, Guardian Purchasing, Pan American Building Materials and Mid-American Distributing, all Grip-Rite companies, will be part of PrimeSource, Inc. The merger results in 46 branch locations, but will be cut to 44 with the combining of Sequoia SupPlY locations in Dallas, Tx., and Chicago, Il., with Guardian Purchasing Corp. and Metropolitan locations in the same areas.

Berdex Opens New Office

Berdex International, Inc. has opened an oflice in Omaha, Ne., to trade and distribute dimension lumber, treated lumber, plywood and building materials nationwide.

Berdex with headquarters in San Francisco. Ca.. has a Sacramento, Ca., office that distributes moulding, millwork. cutstock, clears, selects, plywood and particleboard nationwide. The San Francisco office imports and exports foreign and domestic hardwoods. Berdex also has offices in Manila, Philippines, and Jakarta, Indonesia.

The new office will be managed by Candace Briggs, with Dave Kipp and Jackie Scoles as sales and marketing representatives.

Fibreboard Buys L-P Plant

Fibreboard Corp., Concord, Ca., has completed purchase of Red Bluff, Ca., millwork operations from Louisiana-Pacific Corp. for approximately $14 million.

"We are very pleased to add the Red Bluff locations to Fibreboard's growing list of quality manufacturing plants," said Lawrence C. Hart, chairman and president. "As it is widely known in the industry, these millwork plants bring with them an outstanding reputation for production of a high quality Product."

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PROPUCTS r o Railroad Ties r Poleg o Posts o Dricon Fire Retardant Treated Wood,,, . o All Weather Wood Foundations- o AWPB-FDN StamPed

For informatlon on quick serYice call the treatlng orporlsl

Bar Gode Guidelines

The National Forest 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 from 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 identification, shipping unit identification, physical labeling and electronic data interchange (EDI). 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)l 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.

Bar Coded Boards Hit BE

Builder's Emporium, Irvine, Ca., has bar coded its entire pine board department with both full scan and visual capability, reportedly a first for a major home center chain.

BE lumber buyer Chuck Mayall accomplished the task by combining in-house sku numbers with bar codes on pressure sensitive labels. The boards are produced and coded by Precision Lumber Co., Portland, Or., and distributed by Mesa Forest Products, Costa Mesa, Ca.

Precision Lumber recently completed a major expansion at its facility in The Dalles, Or., and a second plant will be on line by July, according to Precision's Harvey Hetfeld.