Plywood: Best Year

sales floor. easier for customers to buy and dealers to sell.

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expecting record production of 189 billion square feet in 1977 as the national economy recovery.

Improving economic conditions pushed plywood production to a healthy level of roughly 18.1 billion sq. ft. during 1976-up over 12% from the previous year's lackluster showing of 16.1 billion feet.

Concentrated promotion to nonhousing markets helped the industry survive the near-total collapse of home building activity during the recession of 1974-75.

This market diversification program is now paying additional benefits: the home building industry, the largest outlet for plywood, is now moving ahead briskly, while nonhousing markets such as commercial and industrial roof decks, are maintaining the strong demand established during the downturn in residential construction.

The booming home improvement market, now plywood's second largest, is the target of a major promotional drive that began this year and will continue through 1977.

Homeowners increased plywood consumption by roughly 250,000 sq. ft. this year to an estimated total of 3.5 billion, APA analysts expect 100 million sq. ft. increases from this market in each of the next two years.

Due to the diverse, widespread nature of the home improvement segment, the plywood industry is concentrating its promotional efforts on building materials dealers, who account for 97% of sales to this market.

One APA program to help home centers move more plywood is the "Profit With Precut" campaign. Already in use by over 200 of the nation's leading dealers, it's designed to make plywood more visible on the

The "Profit With Precut" package contains a prefabricated display rack of construction drawings for a choice of two displays with ready-to-apply graphicsl an initial supply of APA handyman plans and "how to" brochuresl special sales sessions conducted by APA field representatives: and a new project kit every three months, which includes a plan, written copy and suggestions for window or in-store displays, and reproducible art for dealer advertisements.

Test marketed in the Eastern U.S., the "Profit With Precut" package increased plywood sales as much as 2J7o.

Another promising approach to increasing dealers' plywood sales is the "Anyone Can" program, which is now being test-marketed in cooperation with the Palmer G. Lewis Co., a major Pacific Northwest building materials chain.

"Anyone Can" features an attractive six-foot-high display rack with 10 copies of 48 different plywood Handy Plans,for the do-it-yourselfer, graphics, price stickers, and advertising art.

APA has also developed three training programs for dealers. They can be borrowed for up to 30 days or purchased for $25 each. All include 35mm color slides, scripts, literature, and prerecorded cassettes that fit any standard cassette player,

To sum up, the coming year will probably be the best in the history of the plywood industry. We hope it will be the same for dealers and distributors.

Story at a Glance

Record plywood production of 18.9 billion sq. ft. emphasis on home improvement markets, now plywood's second largest, to continue . . story details dealer sales program and aids builder information kit explains systems.