Fir Plywood filqnufocturers Vote $4 ltillion for Biggest Soles Promotion, Reseqrch in History

Western fir plywood manufacturers in 1959 will pour more than $4 million into the biggest sales promotion, research and development program in the industry's history. This emerged last month (March) as some 150 company officials representing Douglas Fir Plywood Association gathered at a special meeting of subscribers called to review the association's plans for the year ahead.

According to W. E. Difford, managing director of the association, 70/o of these funds will go into sales promotion, including advertising, field promotion, dealer merchandising and trade shows. About 20/o wlll be allocated to research and development and quality control and testing. The remaining l0/o will be allocated to statistical reporting, the Plywood Research Foundation, traffic and administration.

Difford, summing up presentations made by association staff members, told the industry that this year the heaviest emphasis will be on development of new markets for plywood in component manufacture, new research in the field of structural design and in farm markets.

Difford announced that the association has incorporated a subsidiary corporation called Plywood Fabricators Service, fnc., to pioneer marketing of plywood construction components through independent fabricators. W. D. Page, formerly DFPA regional field promotion manager in the Chicago office, will be executive vice-president operating under the policy control of DFPA's management committee.

Page, in Portland to outline plans for the new service, said the plywood markets involved are unlimited. Conceding that accurate forecasts of demand are difficult, he said:

"If PFS fabricators can capture 10/o of the roofs built in the light construction industry with a box beam and stress skin panel system, and if they can get I0/o of rcsidential work with a box beam and thick panel subfloor combination, they could count on an annual volume of at least $140 million."

Big Potential

He said that if they could get 50/o of the truss business going into residential work it would mean a dollar volume of $320 million annually. These factors alone would account for 550 million sq. ft. of plywood and more than 1 billion board feet of high grade construction lumber, he added.

Page said PFS is organizing a pilot program and that further details will be announced as the program materializes.

"We are pioneering a whole new field in construction," Page said. "Already, without promotion, detailed technical data, standardized. specifications or adequate fabrication facilities, components of this type are being widely used.

o Sluds, Boqrds

. Dimension Lumber o plonks, Timbers o Roilroqd Ties o lndustricl Cuttings t9t9

BEVERTY Hl[[S, CALIF. 195 S. Beverly Dr. Phone BRqdshow 2-0641

SAN RAFAEI, CALIF. . P. O. Box 569

Glenwood 4-2310, TWX SR 64

EUREKA, CAtlF. o (Generol Ofrice) 630 J. St.

Hlllside 2-9764, TWX EK 84

"With national promotion support, technical assistance and new research, there is an unlimited opportunity ahead for expanding plywood markets in construction as well as in other areas, such as agriculture and light industry."

Meanwhile, Difford announced also that DFPA's applied research program will be expanded substantially during the year ahead in a concentrated effort to develop new structural systems such as the "folded plate" tuned to the rapid changes taking place in the light construction field.

Under this program DFPA engineers will, among other tl-rings, explore the possibilities of an "erector set" system of building for plywood components and they will push new research aimed at refining the building system developed for retail lumber dealers by the Lumber Dealers Research Council.

Farm Sales

Equally important, said Difford, will be development of the possibilities in fabricated farm buildings which would tie in with the PFS program. Difford said the farm market offers market possibilities which may be as important in future years as sheathing is today. To reach this market, the association is setting up a special staff of agricultural engineers backed by sales promotion in all mediums.

Advertising, merchandising and field promotion are also being expanded to create markets for the industry's output consistent with continuing increases in capacity, he said.

A. W. Agnew, president of Douglas Fir Plywood Asso(Continued onPage42)

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