How to sell painf

by E. G. WILLIAMS

marketing manager, consumer products, coatings & resins div., PPG lndustries, Inc.

COMPLETE line of quality paints also builds customer confidence. Successful stores carry latex and oil base paints, stains, specialty paints and sundries. Specializing in brand of paint also can help b confidence in the store and product itself.

A lumber dealer's paint department also should display new products prominently. This technique usually impresses a buyer that the dealer is well informed about latest developments and techniques in the field, and these products are an important source of income from impulse buying and add-on sales.

Customers also like to know the prices of products before they ask for them. This is one reason why clearly marked prices on individual cans and sundries is often a good sales aid.

Paint customers, just like lumber customers, like to browse. A customer's visits to a lumber dealer or a paint dealer are infrequent, so he's probably unfamiliar with what's available. Gondola-end displays are proven, effective ways to increase paint sales. Perhaps more important is easy access to paintscustomers like to handle cans rather than have clerks bring the cans to them. Holding and possessing a can before

Story sI d Glqnce

Effective ways to move paint and paint products . . . solid merchandising advice for building materials and lumber retailers.

paying for it strikes a responsive psychological chord in many paint buyers.

Careful planning is important to successful paint merchandising. Since there are five months in which the most paint is sold, the lumber dealer must plan ahead to exploit them. June is traditionally the biggest sales month, followed closely by May and July. September ranks fourth and April is a good selling month in the south and southwest. Augustdog daysis a poor selling month. Especially poor are the holiday months of November and December.

During these poor retail sales months, however, an aggressive seller can maintain paint sales if he exploits his most important market -the commercial and industrial market in his area. Storeso ofr@s, restaurantso schools, churches and small industrial plants usually paint through the year. By developing this market, a lumber dealer with a paint department can level out sales volume and keep stock moving.

Selling paint successfully, then, is a lot like selling any other product line successfully. You must have a good product, and you must know how to advise people how to use it. You should advertise paint both inside and outside the store, for many great products were commercial failures because people never learned about them. The size, location and physical arrangement of the area in which you display and dispense your line should be impressive enough to show prospective customers that you know all that's worth knowing about paint.

New Distribution Yqrd

South Bay Redwood Co., founded by Harold N[. Frodsham in 1945, rccently opened their new 22 acre wholesalc redrvood and cedar distrihution 1'ard in Orange, Calif.

The ultra modern plant has spur {acilities for l5 box cars, fir'e li{t trucks, one twin and one single resaw, a high speed Stetson-Ross 610 matcher, which permits milling up to 4" thick by 1,1," wide, a new double-end automatic trimmer, a high speed gang rip and a 12" Vonnecut moulder.

The mill and yard, under the su- pervision of Max Overton, has 20 men in the operation departmcnt plus thc sales and management stafi of James K. Frodsham, president, Max R. Barnette, vp. and gen. mgr., "Sully" Sullivan in charge of local sales, rvith Ken Schmidke in charge of eastern and cxport sales. Founder Harold M. Frodsham is a very active Chairman of thc Board.

A complete invcntor,v of upper grade and common redwood of all grades and sizes is carried, everything from "lath to the large timbers." A new 100x200 dry shed has been erectt'd {or dr1' clear heart and clear S4S and other standard patterns. Thcy manufacture all patterns of redwood and also ofier a custom mil!ing st'r'r'ice. In addition to LCL yard deliveries, South Iluy direct ships rcdwood and cedar via rail and tru<'kand-trailer. They also maintain storage in El Segundo for stock itcms and loc,al pick up.

Inlqnd's Soles Seminor

A sales seminar for its employees u'as held last month by Inland Lumbt'r Co. in San l)iego, hosted by Inlnnd president Fred Thomson.

llore than ll5 were present for the sessions" which were broken into groups and headed by Bill Sharp, Don Derbes and Gary Thomson.

Stafiers Elmer Lewis of Grass Vallev. Calif.. and Joe Tidwell of Eugene, Ore., flew in for the meeting.

Comper-Troiler Deportment

A camper-trailer department has been added by King Lumber Co., the alert Bakersfield. Calif.. merchandiser.

March is the month the repair and remodeling begins according to Bob King. Business remains good, he relates until about this time oI the year. The department stocks a comprehensive line o{ rt'placement parts and supplies.

LliLL.lLl

A. S. Plywood,-Chanpion Papers, Inc. says it plans to buy Roberts Consolidated thru an exchange o{ stock l'ith a minimurn value of $12.5 million . Samuel Cabot, Inc., the Boston, Mass., stain and paint mfgr., has moved to zear quarters at I Union St.

ScoviJl Mlg. Co. has purchased Ajax Hard,ware and Prestige Hard" ware in Los Angeles for an un' disclosed amount Ford, XIotor Co., which put in more than $1 million to buy Concept Envifonment Inc., a Laguna Beach, Calif., modular home builder, says it wants out; o'failure of the company," Ford said. was because "it was launched in a d,epressed, na' tional economy."

Salem Builders Supply, in the Ore. town of that name, has been bought for an undisclosed amoutlt by Handyman, accorditrg to Ronald Lethin, Handyman and C & R Builders president Vickes Corp. says it rvill spend $2 million on lactories to step up its capacity to produce lactory assembled, homes,

Am.erican Snndard steel beams are now S-beams, not l-bcams; channels and angles are norv identified 6y letters rath.er than sym' bols follol'ing an American Iron and Stcel Institute decision to st r e amline nom.encl atur e.

Palmer G. Lervis Co. had a big granil opening carniual at their nerv Salem, Ore., branch; John Paust, Steve Parmley and Jerry Parish run branch Inland Lumber Co., Colton, Calii., rvill be Laking morc th,an 125 guests to Hawaii soon as a result of their third annual promotional contest (ah, how sweet it is!).

LMA says first choice so far for their '72 convention is Silverado, 2nd: Santa Cruz, 3rd: Yosemite; final choice will be made later CF&l Steel Corp. closes its City of Industry, Calif., oflice the middle of this month; no reason giuen Artesia Door is moving to a new $I.3 million plant in Carson, Calif., half again as big as its present facility.

Homer Hayward, Hayward Lumber, celebrated wi{e Nancy's 40th birthd,ay in grand style; he chartered three Air West planes and flerv 100 guests around on a '"mystery tour" that ended in Mouterey, 9 mi, {rom home town SaIinas; he then rvined and dined 'em at Del Monte Lodge.

The llandyman chain of d-i-y hardware and bldg. mtls. centcrs opened three new outlets during August in Orange County, the southern part of metropolitan Los Angeles fire destroyed about #50,000 ol lumber in a mid-August fire at Setzer Pine Products in Sacramento, Caiif., original damage estimetes had been higher.

Departrnent ol Commerce sur' vey says rlore consun't'ers plan to 6ay homes in the 2nd half of '70 than the Ist Nt'\. Assn. ol Home Build,ers {orecast the housirg turnaround occurring this month or next . overall build' ing activity in Los Angeles con' tinues to run about $100 million ahead of the '69 pace.

Arrnstrong CorA has been plaeing test vans at shopping centers to test women's attitudes on printed carpets prior to planning their marketing strategies . . urbon renewal has caused the razing of Alaska Build,ers Supply in Juneau; they decided to hang it up rather than move.

Conseraatian, gouernfiient and lorest prod,ucrs groups met again last mo. in Portland, Ore., to "exchange views," and begin work on common goals; we understand no one has been killed so for during the meetings latest lumber production figures show a 1.6/o d,rop lrom lune,'69.

Rocky the Goat, long the symbol of the Great Northern RR., is being phased, out alter the road's merger with the Burlington line; a stl,lized BN now graces Burlington Northern rolling stock

Basic hourly wage scale Lor 7 bldg. trades, including fringe benefits, zoomed up 10.6/o in tlre pdst yeer) Dept. ol Labor says; in the past f.ue years, construction rvorker's pay has increased 499/o; average hourly wage with fringes is $7.43 {or carpenters and brick Iayers and $8.07 lor plumbers,

P.O. Box 717-1]44 Mines Ave.

Montebello, Colifornia 90640

(2r 3) 685-404r

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