THE AR'ZONA SCENE

SecretaryManager

Sign of the Times

ECENTLY I have received in this office, Cost of Doing Business Surveys, as conducted by many associations in the federated associations.

In the surveys, the average net profit for lumber yards was 3.5 percent before taxes. The reasons given for this poor return were: social security, equipment and interest. All are increasing under the pressure of inflation.

1) Poor Management.

2) Inadequate Turnover.

3) Bad Pricing, based on old-fashioned, outmoded suesswork.

4) Too Little Advertising.

5) Lack of Trained Selling Effort.

Businessmen who do not recognize their costs are in for financial difficulties. Costs include many things: drayage, return of merchandise, costs of carrying over-due accounts, cutting lumber and many others, not the least of which are: labor" taxes.

Another area of concern to our industry is the lack of trained personnel available to lumber yards. The lumber industry must seek ways to train qualified people within their own lumber yard and people outside the industry, so that trained people will be able to fill the gap that exist; today.

The Arizona association, through its marketing and education committees, is trying to fill the gap that now exists in the marketing and education areas.

The hour is growing late-join the association now and help your building industry solve the many problems that exist todav.

Soles Arrongement Chonged

British Columbia Forest Products, Ltd. will sell their own production in the U.S. rail market as of January l.

MacMillan Bloedel Ltd., who used to handle these sales, will continue to handle the sale of BCFP production in other markets, including the U.S. cargo market.

Dolbeer & Corson Nome Revived

A famous old lumber name has been exhumed with the reopening of Dolbeer & Carson Lumber Co. at Eureka, Cali{.

H. Robert Halvorsen, the new owner, has purchased about 20 acres of the old redwood operation and will manufacture redwood fencing material, cut stock for furniture as well as operating custom dryine and remanufacturine facilities for otf,er plants in the area,

The plant has 210,000 sq. ft. of covered space with a sprinkler system and is located in deep draft water just two blocks off Highway I01 with NWP tracks fronting the entire length of the plant. Initially, approximately 100 men and women have been employed and as operations move along other products will probably be manufactured, according to Halvorsen.

The colorful past of Dolbeer & Carson Lumber started about 1863, when William Carson and John Dolbeer built the origi' nal mill. According to records, Carson cut the {irst tree that was felled for a sawlog in Humboldt County. In 1864, he shipped the first load of redwood out of Humboldt Bav to San Franeisco.

Plqnt Serves Entire West

Philip Carey Mfg. Company's first West Coast manufacturing plant, now completed and in full production at Santa Fe Springs, Calif., was built for their Miami - Carey Div. and serves the 13 western states.

Production facilitieso warehouse capacity and general offices are in a plant between Santa Ana Freeway and a Santa Fe RR spur.

Miami - Carey is known nationally for its quality line of bathroom cabinets, kitchen range hoods, and ventilating fans, bathroom mirrors and accessories, door chimes, access doors and home radio-intereom systems. oolVe designed this facility to quickly serve West Coast cus. tomers with standard-line items as well as special western products," explains Philip D. Shea, western div. general sales manager. "Already we have introduced several new western products and more will soon go into production."

With completion of the planl Philip Carey has expanded its original S-acre lease to 8 acres with a view to future expansion.

The plant includes the latest in manufacturing equipment required to turn out an ever-expanding line of products. Overhead conveyors feed a continuous flow of range hoods, bathroom cabinetg and other Miami-Carey products. Superintendent of the plant is K. E. Steele.

Lumber Products Council Meet

The newly formed,Lumber Products Council of the National Buildirrg Material Distributors Association met as part of the I6th Annual Convention of the National Building Material Distributors Association. Lumbermen representing literally the four corners of the U.S., participated in the meeting which was led by Fred S. Thomson of Inland Lumber Co., Rialto, California.

Primary subject of discussion was the basic one of selling more lumber products profitably through retail lumber dealers, and a number of recommendations were made.

Features: Lodi-Fab Cantilever Lod-Racks give you uninterrupted shelf length, tip-free noanchor installations with no height limits. Plus patented quick-change load arms. And no Ioose parts.

Call your nearest distributor for custom sales engineering to your exact needs.

NFPW Industry Forecqst

At the Willamette Valley Hoo-Hoo Clu'b annual observance of National Forest Products Week, John Aram, vice president, Weyerhaeuser Co., said the forest products industry is about to enter "an era of vastly expanding markets."

The success of the industry in cashing in on these new markets depends on its ability to change, said Aram. The industry is still based on production rather than marketing, oogrinding out sticks of certain sizes rather than building materials desigrred for specific engineering performance," he noted.

Aram suggested the industry should make more use of the modern, computer sciences responding to consumer needs rather than producer habits. He predicted the "d,a,y ol the lumber superrnarket is upon us."

Summing up, Aram said the lumber industry can o're-emerge" as a dynamic force, ooquite a difierent business from what we have known."

Refurning Sho rIIy

Reed Lawton's highly praised column on consumer selling does not appear in this Christmas and Business Forecast issue. His column will resume next year

New t&C Merger Plqns

In a last minute change of plans, L & C Limited, Honolulu, Hawaii, voted to merge into Dillingham Corp., also of Hawaii. Previously, L & C and Georgia-Pacific Corp. had announced a merger.

L & C, Ltd.; owns approximately 14.6 acres of business and industrial property in Honolulu. They were one of the Islands' leading distributors o{ building materials until that division was sold in 1965.

Possible Johns-Monville Buy

Johns-Manvill,e Corp. and Fibreboard Corp., San Francisco, have been holding discussions on the possible cash purchase of Fibreboard's gypsum division. Results of the talks are expected to be announced shortly.

Inlqnd Empire Club Elects

Los Angeles television personality and sportscaster Lee Giroux entertained a recent gathering of the Inland Empire Hoo-Hoo Clu,b in Beaumont, Calif.

New president John Dal Broi of Builders' Supply of Palm Springs took the helm for '68 at the meeting. He succeeds outgoing president Ray Lizotte of Inland Lumber. Other new officers are Tom Cobb, T. M. Cobb Co., vice president; Ron Pugh, Don Oakes Lumber, Hesperia, secretary and Glenn Berry, Mason Supplies, treasurer.

The club has gathered a group of new kittens who'll be run through the concatenation ceremony at the January meeting.