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DEAN FOX 707-487-3231

DENN rS LOWE 707-487-6061

In conclusion, I'd like to make an observation that almost all wholesalers and retailers, in the building materials industry, have undergone substantial growth during the past decade - and especially during the past 5 years. This is an established fact. The factors that created this growth are still with us, and will be with us in the year ahead. For this reason, we're planning for another good growth year in 1978.

GRIGG

(Continued from page 9) wide variety, supply and subject. This program will again offer the availability of more professionalism in selling, and release sales help from some questions that are now better answered by in-store visual aid demonstration. These same visual training aids will also offer sales aids that will build multisales of allied products.

With these two "competitive edge" procedures the picture quite well depicts the ability of the retail hardware and home center operators to cash in on better sales abilities in a better selling atmosphere.

The industry in its continued profit surge will find it necessary to keep lines moving, eliminating from stock those dead areas that because of the high cost of space become necessary to filI with moving inventory. In so doing merchandise mix will continually change as the buying patterns of the consumer change.

Paint, plumbing and electrical will still retain the areas on constant return. However, allied lines will change almost by individual market area. Stores will become more pleasant to shop in. Color will predominate to make the home center a warmer shopping experience. o Poles and PostsSupports for every conceivable purpose. lf we don't have it, we'll make it. o Custom Pre-fabricationWe'll help you meet special project requirements. Nearly any format, size or design, including drilling and cutting. o Custom TreatingWhether as ever. No downturn predicted here. Major remodeling projects such as room additions, kitchens, baths, and family rooms are being planned and started.

The advent of new items and the heavy involvement in energy conserving programs, all allied to the industry, will assure the retailers of about a 14% increase over 1977.

From a simole business in stakes and poles over 40 years ago, we've become one of the West's most extensive treating sources. Today we're treating lumber for nearly any use that lumber is called for.

Home repair on older (and some not so old dwellings) will keep the shoulder trade busy on most 1978 weekends.

The diy market will grow in all areas as the building products industry builds increased customer confidence in doing larger and more complex home maintenance jobs.

Better labeling, better instructions, how-to books, consumer demonstrations, and new audio-visual presentations will encourage more activity and a higher volume of sales in the years ahead. Professional labor has simply priced itself out of the residential market. except for emergency repairs.

Manufacturers, Distributors, Retailers! Count your blessings, 1978 will be a fine year. The public says so.

Matamoros

(Continued Jrotn page g1 bers of couples in the 25 to 34 year age bracket, many of whom, though childless, still seek home ownership, affording as it does the opportunity to deduct interest and local taxes from federally-taxable income. an important factor for two wage and salary earners.

But while demand for new homes gathers strength, recent increases in short-term interest rates suggest that flows of savings to thrift institutions will slow down, terms will tighten and mortgage interest rates rise, though only by ll2 ol 1% <:r so. Accordingly, a decline in starts of single-family houses of sonre 200 thousand units from the 1.45 million units expected this year is in prospect. An increase of almost the same nragnitude is projected for multi-f amily starts next year.

Finally, F. W. Dodge data show that contract awards fbr commercial construction have spurted recently, portending strong activity through most of 1978. Store construction, conforming to its traditional relationship to new housing activity, should prove particularly robust.

In summary, the average perfbrmer in the building rnaterials business should be able to look forward tcr a 10-12% gain in dollar voiurne in 1978. Achieving that potential and converting it into a comnlensurate profit improvement in the face of rising costs will require close at' tention to market needs and tight control of operations and overhead.