Redwood can be your key to diversification

'F HE WATCHWORD in building ! material sales for the next few years may be "diversification." With housing starts dropping from 1.65 million a year to 1.5 million starts, lumber wholesalers and retailers needto find other markets to help fill out their sales.

There are other reasons why diversification makes sense. A wellbalanced customer mix will help building material dealers avoid the inevitable ups and downs of any single market. Redwood is one lumber product which satisfies the demands of a variety of customers and several different markets.

Redwood is, of course, always in demand for the traditional construction markets. Redwood siding is used for residential and low-rise commercial construction. There are several options with redwood siding from the top-of-the-line clear all heart grade to the more economical knotty rustic redwood sidings. Redwood interior paneling also has both residential and commercial uses.

In addition to new construction, redwood siding and interior paneling are particularly popular for remodeling and renovation. Redwood is often used in kitchen and bath renovationsthe two rooms most often remodeled. In commercial applications, the warmth of redwood interior paneling is used in banksand offices. Retail businesses in shopping malls often dress up their storefronts with redwood paneling and redwood signage.

Want More Redwood Information?

If you want more information about redwood, you can contact the California Redwood Association, 591 Redwood Highway No. 3100, Mill Valley, Ca. 94941. (415) 381-1304.

For the do-it-yourselfer, redwood is the first choice when it comes to decks, fences and other landscape projects. The properties of redwood are well known, as they have been advertised and publicized in magazines and newspapers coast-to-coast.

These traditional redwood marketshave plenty of diversity in them. The remodeling and renovation markets help to balance the newconstruction markets. In the past decade, the growth of do-it-yourself trade has helped to balance the fluctuations of the professional builder trade. In addition to these traditional redwood markets, there is another area that many merchants may be overlookingthe manufacturing trade.

There are a great number of products manufactured from redwood. Many represent significant markets in themselves. Redwood is used for outdoor furniture, surrounds for spas, landscape lighting, signage, benches and stadium seats, planters, window sills and sashes, architectural columns, shelves for barbecues and tubs for ice cream makers. By developing manufacturing customers, lumber merchants can develop steady customers who are independent of the construction market.

Story at a Glance

Ways to use redwood to build a diversified market base .. how to attract commercial, remodeling, do-it-yourself, industrial customers with the ver' satile qualities of redwood.

Few redwood dealers will capture trade in all of these markets, but a redwood inventory will give them the opportunity to sell to a wide range of customers. Those looking for products that will enable them to sell to diverse markets will do well to take a look at the possibilities with redwood.